Profits leap at building society
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.NATIONWIDE, the building society, yesterday reported a 20.4 per cent jump in profits in the last six months in spite of the slowdown in the housing market.
Pre-tax profits leapt from pounds 176.6m to pounds 212.7m as new customers joined the society during its high-profile campaign to stay mutual. In a July poll of its members, Nationwide narrowly voted to stay mutual.
Publicity surrounding the campaign led to an upsurge in savings business, where balances grew by 8.6 per cent over the half year. Reserves grew to pounds 2.8bn.
However, Nationwide's share of the mortgage market slipped as some borrowers redeemed their loans following the vote in July. The society's share of new loans fell from 11.9 to 11.6 per cent.
Brian Davis, chief executive, said: "I'm surprised in some ways we have managed to hold it up there, given that the share of existing mortgages is much less - around 8 per cent."
Mr Davis said costs had been sharply reduced over the last year but further cuts were needed. He also warned of a difficult year in the mortgage market during 1999.
"We are all preparing ourselves for a bit of a downturn but we don't want to talk ourselves into it. Our projections are still for interest rates to be around 6 per cent-ish at the end of next year."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments