The Yorkshire Building Society has reported gross lending of £6.9bn (2014: £7.6bn) and net lending of £1.1bn for 2015.
These compare to 2014 figures of £7.6bn and £1.1bn respectively.
The mutual said the figures were in line with its strategy of reducing its lending and funding targets.
It helped 6,300 customers take the first step on the property ladder, with 37% of house purchase loans last year to first-time buyers.
The Yorkshire reported a record core operating profit of £185m and profit before tax of £173m.
The number of accounts in arrears by more than three months (including possessions) reduced to 0.96%, compared to 1.21% in 2014.
Chris Pilling (pictured), Yorkshire Building Society Group’s chief executive, said: “I am happy to report another strong set of financial results and am pleased with our achievements during what has been a challenging and competitive year in the financial services industry.
“Interest rates have remained at historically low levels for mortgages and savings customers and competition within the market has become even more intense. As a result, during the year we proactively reduced our lending and funding targets to reflect our commitment to long-term financial sustainability whilst continuing to offer extremely attractive mortgage and savings products. This included launching our lowest ever fixed rate mortgage and helping customers save for their futures with the opening of 166,000 new savings accounts.
“Our commitment to put customers at the heart of everything we do continued to help us work towards our vision of becoming the UK’s most trusted provider of financial services. Not only did we retain our position in the country’s top three most trusted financial service providers for most of the year, we reached 27th in a national customer experience survey of nearly 300 UK consumer brands, having improved 38 places in the past three years.
“Our significant investment programme, which we launched in 2012, is aimed at further enhancing our systems, products and branch and head office sites and will deliver sustainable benefits for our customers and our people. To date, we have refurbished 73 branches, streamlined a series of key processes to make life easier for customers and made a number of improvements to our digital channels giving quicker and simpler access to our services.
“As part of these developments we have recently announced plans for the future of our branch network which will create more flexibility and choice for our members nationally whilst delivering greater efficiencies.
“We do not expect the competitive environment to become any less intense this year but we are well placed to face these challenges and make the most of the opportunities in the year ahead. By focusing on our mutual values, we will continue to maintain the right balance between delivering financial strength and security, providing great value and excellent service to our members and investing in the business for future growth and success.”
