Scottish Building Society mortgages high

Scottish Building Society has edged up its profits in its 170th year amid record mortgage balances despite what it said yesterday was an “increasingly competitive” home loans market.

The society posted a pre-tax profit of £1.3 million for the year ending 31 January, up from £1.27m in the previous 12 months.

It noted that its mortgage balances rose 2.35 per cent to a record £318.4m, while savings balances also grew, by 2.4 per cent to reach an all-time high of £373.7m.

Speaking to members at the society’s AGM held at Hampden Park, chief executive Mark Thomson said: “I’m pleased to report another strong set of financial results for a year that has seen both residential mortgage assets and retail savings balances increase directly in line with our five-year-plan to grow our business in a balanced, prudent and controlled manner.

“As a proud mutual institution, providing long-term value to our members is at the very heart of our strategy. We have invested in new processes and technology to improve our mortgage services, and we will shortly be launching an online savings account.

“Some years ago we took the decision to offer only simple, straightforward savings products which have proven to be popular with our new and existing members, evidenced by the growth in our retail savings balances over the past three years of 12.6 per cent.”

Yesterday’s statement said that the society now had total assets of £420.2m – up from £409.2m in the year to January 2017. 0 Mark Thomson, chief executive – ‘prudent’