It delivered a strong commercial performance with gross lending of £240m and mortgage book growth of 7%, well in excess of the 4.3% residential lending market growth recently reported by the Bank of England.
The Society also secured a ground-breaking investment partnership with the Cambridgeshire County Council Pension Fund to deliver a £15m capital injection, the structure of which preserves The Cambridge’s status as a member-owned, mutual organisation.
Peter Burrows, Finance Director at The Cambridge said; “2017 has been a fantastic year for the Society. Our continued growth builds on the momentum from record lending in 2016 resulting in our mortgage book growing by 20% over two years to stand in excess of £1bn for the first time in the Society’s history. Over the same period we have held our cost base broadly flat, enabling us to drive significant improvements in our profitability.”
2018 will see continued investment in products and services with a new store in the centre of Cambridge planned for spring. Support for borrowers also remains high on the agenda with a series of initiatives to help first time buyers scheduled to launch later in the year.
Peter continues; “Providing mortgages for homeowners and landlords is what we’re about and the investment partnership we secured in September last year now gives us a foundation on which to build our growth and lending plans. We’ve already announced a number of initiatives this year, including now accepting residential lending applications from borrowers looking to borrow 5 times their income. These have been welcomed by intermediaries and borrowers alike and we have a number of other developments we’re working on that will help even more people have a home of their own.
“We also recognise the challenges still faced by savers and over the past 12 months we’ve expanded our product range and improved the number of options customers have to manage their accounts by launching The Cambridge money app. As a result we saw our members’ savings balances grow by £85m over 2017.”
For the latest information visit www.cambridgebs.co.uk