Gross mortgage lending at The Nottingham rose by 40 per cent to almost £0.5bn, in a year described by the building society as one of “extraordinary challenge”.
In its 2020 annual results for the year ended December 31, published today (March 9) the building society reported a 40 per cent increase in new advances to £493m and total assets of £3.8bn.
The Nottingham added it had seen over 40,000 new customers in the year, with its Lifetime Isa customer numbers now at 35,000.
It comes as the building society reported total branch savings balances were up 3 per cent in 2020 to £2.5bn.
David Marlow, chief executive officer, said: “Branches are the cornerstone of serving our members, and we have long been supporters of a strong branch network. This is best demonstrated by the fact that we have doubled the number of branches in the past seven years.
“This has proven very successful with branch savings balances increasing from £1bn in 2013 to over £2.5bn at the end of 2020 for the first time in our history. The important role of branches, we believe, will remain for many years to come.”
However, The Nottingham is also set to relaunch its online savings brand, Beehive Money, this summer after noting a greater use of digital channels as a “universal” impact of the pandemic.
The building society said: “Whilst this trend was recognised some time ago and steps were well underway to digitise the society’s operations, it was clear in the summer that would need to be accelerated significantly and further investment in its digital transformation was approved.”
chloe.cheung@ft.com
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