West Bromwich Building Society has seen a decline in new mortgage lending year-on-year.
West Bromwich Building Society has seen a slight decline in new mortgage lending year-on-year.
New mortgage lending fell from £251m in 2019 to £248m.
In addition, the percentage of new mortgages to first-time buyers dropped from 56% to 48% over the same timeframe.
According to the society, it is the first lender to launch new mortgage product proposition specifically designed to support mortgage prisoners, who have previously been trapped in paying higher rates due to strict borrowing criteria
It also outlined that the society maintained its average rate for savers at 17% above the market average for the period, rising to 52% above by the period end.
In addition, statutory profit before tax was noted at £2.9m.
The society said that it reported a strong capital position with the Common Equity Tier 1 (CET 1) capital ratio improving to 16.5%.
It also saw an uplift in its Net Promoter Score from +73 at March.
According to the lender, the average across the financial services sector +50.
Furthermore, 14% of all the lender's residential mortgages had taken a payment deferral.
For those that had reached the end of their initial payment deferral, 84% had either restarted their monthly payments or redeemed their mortgage, with 16% requiring an extension, representing 2% of total residential mortgages outstanding.
Jonathan Westhoff, chief executive of West Bromwich Building Society, said: “Set against the challenges of operating in full lockdown for half of the period, I’m pleased to report the society has delivered a robust first half performance.
“Throughout this period, we have been focusing on prioritising the wellbeing of our members, colleagues and communities, remaining operationally and financially resilient and ensuring our products, services and premises are safe and accessible.
“We responded to the first lockdown back in March by adapting our operating model to ensure we could maintain our high service standards.
“We did not place any employees on the furlough scheme, and ensured all employees were paid their full salary irrespective of whether they are required to work their full contractual hours.
“We supported homeworking for a high number of employees, and reduced the number of people working in our head office and branches to enable social distancing.”
