The Yorkshire Building Society has reported increased profits and savings balances, while delivering record mortgage lending and reducing costs.

The society increased its pre-tax profit in 2018 by 16% to £192.5m and improved its core operating profit by 13% to £180.8m.

The mutual financed over 36,000 mortgages, increasing gross lending by 10% to a record £8.9bn (2017: £8.1bn), and net lending by 60% to £1.6bn.

Mike Regnier, Yorkshire Building Society Group’s chief executive, said: “It’s very pleasing that in a competitive market, which has seen margins under pressure, we’ve delivered a sustainable level of profit whilst also improving value for members. But it’s even more pleasing to know we’ve supported millions of people to achieve the financial goals which enable their life goals.

“As a building society, our members are our customers and our shareholders. We’re here to provide them with the financial tools they need to achieve the things in life they want – whether that’s buying their first home, saving to build financial resilience, or using their money to help the next generation.

“All of the money we make is either used to help our members, through higher than average savings rates, more flexible products and improved services, or kept within the Society to make us financially stronger and more resilient.

“Our year-on-year reduction in operating costs, along with improvement in the management expense ratio, shows that we’re becoming more efficient and giving our members better value for money.”