Leeds Building Society sets new lending records over the half year

Reporting interim results for the first half of 2022, chief executive Richard Fearon said the mutual had built on the exceptional performance of 2021 with gross lending climbing to £2.5bn and net lending rising to £1.2bn, which are both record half-year amounts for the society.

Nine of its 10 biggest lending days ever occurred during the first six months of this year leading to its highest number of completions in the first-half of a year.

Total membership grew to 815,000, including 9,000 new members who chose the society when deciding to buy their first home.

Lending growth was supported by a corresponding rise in savings balances, with the increase topping £1bn, taking total savings balances to £16.4bn, which compared with £15.25bn at the end of December 2021.

Mr Fearon said: “I’m delighted we’ve delivered a record breaking first half of the year, achieved a series of landmarks across our lending and supported savers at a critical time.

“Being mindful of our roots as a mutual, we’ve reaffirmed our purpose – to put home ownership within reach of more people – and future generations of first-time buyers are integral to our plans.

“To successfully deliver on that purpose means ensuring we offer a competitive savings range. We’ve consistently paid above the market average rate – which equates to an extra

£66m in our savings members’ pockets – and our fixed rate products have been a notable strength, appealing to new and existing savers alike.

“I’m proud we were able to attract so many new members but acknowledge the elevated demand for our savings products led to some long waiting times for callers. We didn’t always

meet the high standards of service we strive for but I’m pleased that we’ve taken steps to address this and the situation has now returned to normal.

“Work is ongoing to increase online functionality and capacity for savings members and this remains a key focus over the coming months to ensure our savings processes are simpler

and quicker to use. This should deliver benefits like those seen since upgrading our mortgage systems – Mortgage Hub, our online mortgage platform, is now capable of

processing applications from intermediaries in as little as 11 seconds and further enhancements are planned.

“Our ambitious multi-year IT transformation is progressing to plan and on budget, and during the first six months of 2022 we successfully completed the transfer of our data centres,

boosting our resilience and security, both of which must be priorities for any financial services provider.”

Investment this year has included improvements and refurbishment across Leeds Building Society’s 50-strong national network of branches, as part of a commitment to face-to-face

service where this is sustainable.

“We’ve continued to recruit, creating a further 65 skilled jobs, such as adding to the varied and specialist IT skills within the society,” said Mr Fearon.

“One in five of our colleagues now works in a ‘tech’ role and we are successfully trialling hybrid working to make effective use of our energy-efficient new head office in Leeds city centre.

“Developing and future-proofing our operations helps us to carry on doing what we do best, meeting consumer need with product innovation, such as launching mortgages that incentivise greener homes. We have also taken significant steps in reaching net zero as a business and supporting our stakeholders to do the same. Having already achieved carbon neutral status on scope 1 and 2 emissions and business travel, we are now assessing our scope 3 emissions to help us reduce our indirect impact on the environment.”

The mutual said that the strong lending performance over the first half delivered profit before tax of £146.5m, compared with £70.3m in the same period the year before.

The society has also become a sponsor of Leeds Digital Festival.