Record mortgage lending by Dudley
Dudley Building Society hit a record level of mortgage lending in its last financial year.
The society, which has its head office in Brierley Hill and celebrates its 160th anniversary this year, saw a fall in pre-tax profits from £1.72 million to £1.54m for the year to the end of March.
Its mortgage lending was up 58 per cent from £51.9m to £82.2m and more than £70m was deposited by savers.
The year end total asset base was up 12 per cent from £354.7m to £397.4m and this has topped £400m since the end of the financial year..
The society, which has five branches and employs 97 full and part-time staff, also achieved a position of 24th in The Best Companies to Work For table in the Midlands for 2018.
Chief executive Jeremy Wood said: ‘I am thrilled to be reporting yet another year of exceptional growth, business volumes and profit to our members. The Society has lent over 50 per cent more than it did last year and we have grown as a business by 12 per cent. As we grow we are able to invest in the business and have continued to introduce improvements for the benefits of members in a society that they own."
The society has championed lending in areas such as supporting the self employed, ex-pats and has continued to lead in the later life lending arena. The demand for mortgages has supported increased appetite for savings and has seen the society introduce new savings accounts for corporate bodies along with a loyalty saving range for existing members.
The latter part of the year saw a refresh of the Perton branch seeing the completion of a branch wide refurbishment program that has been well received by the members who are frequent visitors.
As the financial year came to an end feedback on independent review platform Smart Money People resulted in overall satisfaction rating of 98 per cent from society members.
The society’s annual general meeting will be held at 2pm on July 19 in Himley Hall, when Lord Digby Jones who will be meeting members, delivering a talk and taking part in a question and answer session.
The event will mark the start of the society 160th celebrations that will include a number of announcements on the day.
