Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society said its balances increased £4.9 billion in 2024 to £52 billion in a year when it paid “favourable” rates that were “0.90 percentage points higher than the rest of market on our savings accounts … equivalent to £430.2m of additional interest for our savers.”

Yorkshire said its mortgage balances grew to £49.7 billion (2023: £46.8bn), driven by both higher levels of gross lending and improved levels of retention. It delivered net lending of £2.9 billion (2023: £1.6bn).

The building society said net interest income has reduced to more “normalised” levels.

“Net interest income was £736.5m in 2024, decreasing £49.5m year on year (2023: £786.0m).,” said Yorkshire.

“Net interest margin decreased 15 basis points to 1.16% (2023: 1.31%). The anticipated reduction in 2024 was driven by margin compression in both mortgages and savings and the non-repeated benefit of a rising Bank Rate in 2023, coupled with interest rates falling in the second half of 2024.

“We increased strategic investment in our transformation activities this year, which in addition to the impacts of inflation and increased scale, contributed to an increase in management expenses to £366.6m (2023: £332.7m).”

On a statutory reporting basis, profit before tax fell to £383.7 million from £450.3 million.

Yorkshire CEO Susan Allen said: “Whilst there are signs in the broader economy that some of the cost-of-living challenges may be beginning to ease, we recognise that many people continue to face financial challenges.

“This year we have launched targeted, innovative products to help address some of these challenges and continue to provide our members with savings rates that were consistently above the market average.

“We have further improved our customer advocacy and are proud of our mutual status. These results strengthen our financial position and place us well in the continuing pursuit of our purpose.”