Stroud & Swindon Building Society has published results for 2006 which show continued strong asset growth, increased mortgage lending and retail receipts and improved cost efficiency.

The mortgage market in 2006 confounded many peoples’ expectations. The level of mortgage lending set new records with house prices increasing on average by 10%. This inevitably created difficulties for first time buyers and as a result the buy to let market has continued to grow strongly. To meet demand, we offered a range of attractive mortgage products including a first time buyer product with no deposit and increased lending multiples. In addition we have offered competitive fixed rate and tracker products for the house purchase, remortgage and buy to let sectors. As a result, mortgage lending grew from £600 million in 2005 to £745 million in 2006.

The savings market in 2006 proved to be even more competitive and it was particularly pleasing that the Society was able to generate £144 million of net savings receipts. We took advantage of the market expectations of rising interest rates and were able to offer very attractive fixed rate bonds throughout the year. In addition, we launched a number of very successful new products including the Platinum 50, a notice account for over 50’s , the Premium Reward Account and a Members Income Bond available to existing members.

We continued to exercise control over our costs and our management expense ration fell from 0.79% to 0.76%.

Profit before tax fell from £10.6 million in 2005 to 9.1 million in 2006. As a mutual building society, profit maximisation is not our primary purpose.

Instead, we aim to maximise value to members in part by providing good value products while also achieving sufficient profitability to maintain our balance sheet strength.

I am convinced that building societies continue to play an important role in today’s competitive market place. The Stroud & Swindon has a long tradition of providing excellent member value through high quality service and attractively priced products. We are large enough to compete and to achieve the necessary economies of scale and small enough to respond to our customers needs, to target niche areas of the market and react speedily to market changes. We will continue to broaden our product range, develop related services, to generate new income streams and focus on improving the cost efficiency of our core business.”

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For more information please contact:-

David Hill
Chief Executive
01453 757011

Kit Beazley

Finance Director
01453 757011