The Society breaks more records amid further investment

Our Society has reached a substantial landmark in its growth story – in the same month we have unveiled a number of new investments including a £1 million investment in IT and the recruitment of 6 new staff.

We have built on our 2021 success and growth – when our total assets, mortgage balances, savings, capital and profits all reached record highs – by hitting the landmark £500 million in total assets for the first time.

We achieved this on the back of posting growth of £28.5 million in the first quarter – our highest ever growth figure in any quarter since the Building Society was formed in 1923. To also put this increase in perspective, for the whole of 2021, our total assets grew by £49.1 million to reach £463.5 million, a 12% increase on the previous year’s figure.

That achievement has been reached in the same month we made several other announcements.

We have invested £1 million in our IT and back-office infrastructure, in a deal that replaces all of our hardware, considerably strengthens our cyber security, creates a remote disaster recovery site and enhances the online offering we are able to offer our customers.

We have also increased our workforce with six new recruits. We have invested in new talent across a number of departments including Mortgage Underwriting, IT and the mortgage sales team.

We remain one of the few financial institutions in the UK that receives no wholesale funding or support from the Bank of England in the form of cheap funding. Our balance sheet is funded entirely by customer savings balances and our own capital reserves built up from retained profits over many years.

We continued with our ethos of ‘opening not closing’ branches, in contrast to most financial institutions, and kept all branches open for every business day of the year. This benefitted us through the pandemic as more customers sought a personal, friendly and local service, and many savers, worried by economic uncertainty, also looked to spread their assets.

Alun Williams, our Chief Executive, said:

“Even in the context of what has been an extraordinary couple of years for the Society, hitting this landmark and making these announcements in new investments and people feels very special. We have remained positive throughout the challenges of COVID and I feel we have reaped the rewards in terms of customer loyalty and commitment. We remain proud of our ethos of opening, not closing, branches and continue to help normal families every day, to make positive decisions around both savings and owning their own homes.”