Skipton Building Society has posted increased profits after tax of £129.8m for 2016.
This was up 14.5 per cent on the previous year, while the society also increased its mortgage lending and customer base.
Gross mortgage lending increased by 8 per cent to £4bn during 2016 while savings balances grew by 9.1 per cent to £15.5bn.
However the mortgage and savings division produced a reduced profit before tax of £96.9m, down 6.3 per cent on the previous year.
David Cutter, Skipton's group chief executive, said: “Looking after people's savings and enabling home ownership is at the very heart of what the society does as a mutual building society.
“I firmly believe that our long term focus of being there to help people plan for their life ahead is resonating with our members.”
Over the course of 2016 the society integrated its financial advice arm, Skipton Financial Services, into the rest of the business.
Mr Cutter said the need for high quality, face-to-face financial planning was “greater than ever”.
He said: “In 2016 we integrated our financial advice subsidiary into the society and in doing so will make it easier and more cost effective to meet our customers' changing needs.
“This enables us to offer a one-stop-shop for all financial planning matters through a seamless customer experience, without duplicating branding, digital and online investment.”
The building society’s net interest margin also fell by 17bps to 1.16 per cent.
In its results Skipton said: “A low interest rate environment, increased competition in the mortgage market and a higher propensity for existing borrowers to switch to a new mortgage product contributed to this reduction in margin.”
damian.fantato@ft.com
