Swansea Building Society has posted record profits as well as achieving the highest growth in its total assets and saving balances. For its 2024 financial year the Swansea headquartered mutual saw double digit growth in its total assets, mortgages, savings and capital for the fourth successive year.
Total assets and savings both grew by 14%, while mortgages grew by 11%. Total assets climbed £86.7m to £693.7m with savings balances increasing by £81.8m to £647.3m. Mortgage balances grew by £52.3m to £530.1m, driven by gross mortgage completions of £111m .
The society’s growth was supported by a record pre-tax profit of £6.3m - succeeding the previous record of £6.2m posted in 2023. This increased the society’s capital reserves by 12% to £44.5m.
The society, which was established in 1923, remains one of the few financial institutions in the 海角视频 not reliant on wholesale funding or support from the Bank of England in the form of cheap funding. Its balance sheet is funded entirely by customer savings balances and its own capital reserves built up from retained profits over many years.
Its chief executive Alun Williams said: “The society has continued to meet the needs of both savers and borrowers, while delivering another record set of results. Our record asset growth supported by record profitability has further strengthened our foundations for future sustainable growth in order that we can help more members to buy their own home or reach their financial savings goals. This has been achieved while investing in the society to ensure it remains sustainable, scalable and relevant in the future.
“I am delighted with the dedication and care shown by my colleagues to deliver the level of service our existing and new members deserve, while through our charity and volunteering work, we have supported those people in our communities who need help the most.”
On the wider macroeconomic climate Mr Williams said:“The Bank of England’s base interest rate remained at a 16-year high, at 5.25% for the majority of the year, before reducing to 4.75% as at the end of December. We are mindful that many of our customers have never experienced such a high interest rate environment and were considerate of the impact that these rates could have on both new and existing borrowers.
“The economic conditions have meant that the Society’s flexible lending policy has been in high demand, and the society exceeded its gross lending targets for the year. At the same time, our mortgage book has shown great resilience to the high interest rate environment and other cost of living pressures with our arrears statistics remaining excellent during the year. As we head into a forecast downward interest rate curve, I hope to see these pressures subside further for our mortgage borrowers.
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“One of the society’s key aims is to help savers to reach their financial goals and to deliver sustainable returns over their long relationship with us. In December 2023, we increased our savings interest rates by 0.25% without any corresponding increase in mortgage interest rates. While this decreased our net interest margin ratio for 2024, we felt it was the right thing to do for our members and has helped to deliver record growth in savings in the year.”
The mutual remains wedded to maintaining its high street presence. It has branches (its HQ is no longer a branch) in Swansea, the Mumbles, Carmarthen and Cowbridge.
Mr Williams said:“We remain fully committed to our branch network, and our objective of ‘opening and not closing branches’. We will continue to support mortgage niches which the wider mortgage market lacks the resources or knowledge to do so. We look forward to delivering on our plans in 2025 as we continue to look after the needs of our members and communities.”
The mutual recently struck a naming rights deal for the Swansea Arena, which is now called the Swansea Building Society Arena.