2009 Business Highlights:
* Operating profit before impairment losses and provisions increased to a record £80.1 million (2008 £68.6 million).
* Pre-tax profit rose to £31.7 million (2008 £20.3 million).
* Savings balances rose by £225 million to a record level of £6.8 billion.
* Quality of lending remains good with the average loan to value (LTV) on 2009 advances being just 50%, the same LTV as on its total residential mortgages.
* Wholesale funding ratio reduced to 23% (29% 2008).
Chief executive, Ian Ward, said: "Our new lending totalled £922 million in 2009, compared to £1.28 billion last year. However, this reflected the much smaller UK market with net mortgage lending, which declined to less than £12 billion, only around a quarter of the 2008 volume. Throughout the year, we offered a wide range of mortgage products enabling many customers to remortgage or buy their first home. All of the Society's residential mortgage lending is funded entirely by retail savings.
"Our lending policies continue to be very prudent and this is demonstrated by our average LTV on new lending in 2009 being just 50%, the same LTV as on our total residential mortgages…
"We introduced a range of initiatives to help mortgage customers through this period and residential arrears (2.5% or more of outstanding mortgage balances), which had been rising in the early part of 2009, stabilised in the summer and have now started to reduce. At 31 December, 2009, our arrears percentage was 2.24% (2008: 1.26%) and, based on the latest available data (30 September 2009), is superior to the average for all lenders.”
