In its half year results, announced today, the building society revealed profit before tax was £67.3 million – which is a decrease on the £76.5 million reported on 30 June 2019.

Meanwhile core operating profit was £74.7 million compared to £97.5 million reported at the end of June last year.

Yorkshire reported a common equity tier 1 ratio of 16.6%, which was the same as December 2019.

It completed 31,384 mortgages with 3,002 being issued to first-time buyers. Mortgage balances remained at £38 billion – the same figure reported in December 2019.

Meanwhile savers were benefiting from rates which Yorkshire said beat the market average by 0.19%. Although this was down from 0.34% in December 2019 it still equated to £23.6 million in additional interest for savers.

Indeed, savings balances were slightly higher than at December 2019 – coming in at £30.8 billion compared to December’s £30.7 billion.

Covid-19

In its report the building society provided a summary of how it had responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yorkshire said it had prioritised keeping members in their homes, ensuring their savings were safe and looking after colleagues’ health and wellbeing.

It said it helped many customers stay in their homes by authorising 37,307 mortgage payment deferrals. It also supported members in building financial resilience, opening 105,283 savings accounts in the six months to 30 June 2020.

Mike Regnier (pictured, above) chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society, said: “Our mutuality is important in these challenging times, as it enables us to take an approach which puts our customers, colleagues and communities first.

“For borrowers worrying about meeting their mortgage payments, we are supporting them with a variety of solutions, including mortgage payment holidays.”

‘Prudent strategy’

Commenting on the financial results he said: “I’m pleased to report that our 2020 half-year performance illustrates that our prudent strategy over the longer term has enabled us to weather the challenging economic environment and impacts of Covid-19.

“Our balance sheet has stayed strong, our statutory and core profits remain healthy and we retain strong levels of capital and liquidity.”

He added: “Our aim as we come out of the Covid-19 crisis is to carry on helping members, customers, communities and colleagues for many years to come.”