Gallery
Hinckley & Rugby Building Society today [February 25] announced it achieved £103.7m of mortgage advances in the year to the end of November 2013, the first year to top£100m since 2007.
Announcing its results for the year to the end of November 2013, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society said it had enjoyed more than 18 per cent growth in mortgage advances.
Chief executive Chris White said: “It was a transformational year for us. We increased our capacity ready for increased levels of applications which duly arrived as the market became more optimistic.”
Hinckley & Rugby increased mortgage advances by £16.1m to £103.7m. With a 38 per cent increase in net mortgage applications, up from £83.4m to £113.4m, the current year began with a healthy pipeline of mortgage business of £33.8m – 43 per cent up on a year ago.
For 2014 the Society is aiming to advance more than £130m. Chris White said: “We have started the year in a really strong position.”
Net interest income rose to £5.16m (2012: £4.47m) and there was an improved net interest margin of 0.91 per cent (2012: 0.77 per cent). It was the third consecutive year with an improvement in net interest margin.
Administrative expenses rose from £4.61m to £4.93m as the Society refurbished branches and hired additional staff, however expenses are still below their 2003 level. Chris White said: “When you factor inflation in, our expenses are where they were in the early 1990s.
“The additional staff are in place to enable the Society to do more mortgage business. We have invested in that capacity to maintain our outstanding service to customers and brokers as the volume of lending increases and our savings balances grow.”
Pre-tax profit was up, from £0.35m to £0.56m, but so was the levy the Society must pay the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) – from £0.25m to £0.3m.
2013 saw Hinckley & Rugby borrow £25m from the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), but the year also saw funding from the wholesale market significantly decreased from £79.4m to £27.2m.
Total assets at the year end were £556m (2012: £580.5m) as the Society chose to improve the quality of its liquid assets whilst reducing their total from £141m to £108m. Liquidity held at the Bank of England and in UK Government securities rose to more than 70 per cent.
The year saw a further cut in the number of borrowers in arrears by one month or more to just 25 compared to 38 a year before. This level is less than one seventh of the industry average reported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Chris White said: “Hinckley & Rugby continues to prosper in what remains a hugely challenging market, thanks to its staff’s hard work and commitment to outstanding customer service.”
The 148th annual report will be presented to members at the Society’s AGM at 10.00am on March 26 at the Society’s principal office on Upper Bond Street, Hinckley.
