In the nine months to 31 December 2015, gross and net residential mortgage lending at the Nationwide Building Soctiety increased 16% and 18% respectively.

Meanwhile, growth in member deposits increased 29% and new current account openings increased 13%.

The UK’s largest building society’s underlying profit increased 15% to £1,129 million and statutory profit is up 19% to £1,123 million.

Graham Beale, Nationwide’s chief executive, said: “Nationwide has continued with the success reported at the half year, with the third quarter performance demonstrating the strength of our franchise and proposition across all of our principal markets.

“This success is the result of continued investment in our products, our branches, our digital channels and our services. As a building society, our primary focus is on our members, and notwithstanding the continued low interest rate environment, we will continue to invest in the Society and our member proposition going forward. We continue to be ranked number one for customer satisfaction amongst our high street peer group with a lead of 5.3%.

“The financial results have benefited from our success in key markets and a strong margin, reflecting the higher market rates for mortgage loans prevailing in recent years.

“These results have further enhanced our capital strength, with our Common Equity Tier 1 ratio now at 22.6%, the highest in our peer group. Our leverage ratio has also strengthened to 4.3%2 taking it to the likely maximum we will be required to hold based on our interpretation of emerging guidance.

“We recently announced that Joe Garner will succeed me as chief executive from 5 April this year. I am proud to have led the Society for the last nine years and to have played my part in demonstrating that Nationwide is a compelling alternative to the established banks. I remain confident and excited about what Nationwide can offer in the future and I wish Joe every success.”