Paradigm Mortgage Services has reported growth in membership numbers, revenue and gross lending completions over the past 12 months.

During the 12 months to 31 March 2020, Paradigm increased the number of member firms by 10.9%, up to 1,544 from 1,392 at the end of March 2019.

It also increased its associated gross lending completion figures by 17.5% to £9.86 billion, from £8.39 billion.

Mortgage application gross lending figures rose by 19.7% to £10.89 billion, while procuration fee income grew by 19%.

Paradigm Protect, the directly authorised protection proposition, wrote £14.7m in annual premiums, which was up 22% on the previous year. The total income generated on Life and GI business was £658k, an 11% year-on-year increase. The number of policies written increased 36% on the previous year.

During the year, Paradigm Mortgage Services amalgamated with Paradigm Consulting – the group’s financial support consultancy which offers compliance and regulatory support to firms – with combined revenue increasing 9.6% to £5.426m (2019: £4.949m).

The number of firms using Paradigm Protect was up by 23.7% during the year to 662 (2019: 535), while those using Paradigm Consulting increased to 394, from 385 at the end of September 2019, an increase of 2.3%.

Bob Hunt (pictured), chief executive of Paradigm Mortgage Services, said: “In a very true sense, the 2019-20 year was book-ended by two very different, but incredibly challenging, events. The first half was framed by Brexit and General Election uncertainties and we finished the year dealing with the overwhelming impact of Covid-19, with the recent lockdown restrictions making the completion of mortgages very difficult indeed.

“Even with those challenges – which are still ongoing – we are very pleased to announce a strong set of yearly results for our mortgage services, protection and consulting businesses.

“Membership growth across all three has been particularly pleasing and this has helped deliver these excellent results, specifically in terms of gross lending completion figures, procuration fee income growth, protection policies written, revenue and profit.

“We’re all acutely aware that the return to any sort of housing/mortgage market ‘normality’ will take time but we continue to provide significant levels of support and advice to our member firms about how they can work through this period and continue to write business and generate income.

“It is still difficult to forecast what the likely total impact will be, however my team and I are determined to continue to work towards delivering a high level of service and support to our growing and first-rate intermediary businesses, and in turn their clients.

“We are fortunate to have an experienced and efficient staff within our compliance, mortgage, protection and technical functions and we remain in very good shape not just to navigate our way through this situation, but to deliver continued growth across all key metrics.”