Nationwide sees solid profit growth; mortgage lending at pre-recession levels

Nationwide Building Society posted a solid jump in full-year profit, with mortgage lending volumes rising to pre-recession levels.

For the financial year 2015/2016, underlying profit was up 9% to £1.34bn, while statutory profit rose 23% to £1.28bn as net mortgage lending grew 28% to £9.1bn. This represents a 21.4% share of the market.

Meanwhile, gross mortgage lending increased by 20% to £32.6bn, or around 13.7% of the market.

Chief executive Joe Garner said: “Nationwide has demonstrated that outstanding customer service is the most sustainable path to excellent business performance. It's a credit to the management and people of the Society that they have consistently understood this and organised Nationwide around this principle.

“As a result, last year we lent more money to help people into a home of their own than since before the financial crisis in 2007. More people are also choosing to manage their money with Nationwide, with over half a million new current accounts opened in the year. And our loyalty accounts and regular savings offering has led to an increase in member deposit balances of £6.3 billion.”

The lender expanded its current account base with 525,000 new accounts, up 12% on 2015.

Nationwide said it helped 57,200 first-time buyers into a home of their own, which is one in six of all such cases in the UK.

During the four years to 4 April 2016, Nationwide accounted for over a third of net lending in the market.