Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society’s recent interim results showed its core operating profit rose to £86.3 million for the first six months of the year compared to £84.2 million at the same time last year.
The UK’s second largest building society said its profit before tax slipped to £88.6 million from £92.3 million in “a challenging environment.”
Yorkshire said it completed 20,058 mortgages, increased total mortgage balances to £35.4 billion from £35.1 billion at December 31, 2017, and achieved gross lending of £4 billion, up from £3.4 billion at June 30, 2017.
Yorkshire, which has more than three million customers, said its savings balances were maintained at £28.8 billion.
The society increased its total asset base to £42.3 billion from £42 billion in December.
“The society’s liquidity and capital positions have remained solid, with liquidity comfortably above regulatory requirements at £6.0bn (31 December 2017: £6.1bn) and common equity tier 1 capital increased to 16.1% (31 December 2017: 15.8%),” said Yorkshire.
Yorkshire Building Society CEO Mike Regnier said: “I’m pleased to report the Society has had a good start to 2018.
“Our priority is to continue delivering good long term value to our members while maintaining a focus on our core purpose of helping people into homeownership and save for the future.
“We believe this is increasingly important, considering the challenges many people are facing as a result of housing affordability and an extended period of low interest rates in the savings market.
“Our improved financial strength and solid profits reflect our prudent and disciplined approach.
“This enables us to deliver the flexible, competitive products and services which help our members achieve their financial aims.
“Reducing the cost base has been a key strategic focus for us.
“This has resulted in a 10% reduction in our underlying management expenditure.
“We continue to improve efficiency and we have completed the retirement of the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society brand from the high street and successfully transferred savings customers to Yorkshire Building Society systems.
“We are also investing in developing enhanced digital capabilities.
“As well as improving the services we offer members, this ongoing work will ensure we are able to make the most of opportunities presented by technological advancement, including Open Banking.”