Progressive Building Society, Northern Ireland’s largest locally owned financial institution, announced an increase in pre tax profit to £5.7m at its Annual General Meeting in Belfast today.

The mutual based society, which celebrates its centenary this year and whose main business is savings and  mortgage lending, also saw total gross mortgage assets increase, to £1,320 million.

Darina Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer said, “I am pleased to report that Progressive Building Society has delivered another very strong set of financial results. We have achieved an excellent performance in our core markets, maintaining a well structured Balance Sheet with total assets sitting at £1,620m. The first half of 2013 continued to be challenging with a difficult and stagnant housing market in Northern Ireland, however the latter half of the year saw encouraging signs in buyers’ confidence as the market made a positive upward turn which bodes well for 2014 and beyond.”

According to Progressive key to its business is having qualified advisors on hand in each of its 12 strong branch network and with the biggest change to mortgage regulations recently implemented, Darina Armstrong highlights that staff will be on hand offering face to face advice and guidance to customers.

“The staff in our branches are key to the success of the Society. They will take time to get to know our members and will have a genuine interest in helping them understand the complexities of savings and mortgages.  We understand that the procedure of applying for a mortgage can appear complex so we have dedicated qualified staff in all our branches to ensure our customers fully understand the mortgage process.

2013 was a frustrating year for saving members with record low interest rates remaining throughout the year.  Despite this, Progressive attracted £234m of new retail savings by offering competitive savings rates to new members and rewarding existing members for their loyalty with market leading loyalty products. 

“Whilst we recognise the challenges of low economic growth, our key focus in 2014 will be to provide security for our members and build on our financial strength”, continued Darina. “We are investing £1million in redeveloping our Ballymena branch offering our members modern and state of the art facilities. The proposed merger with the City of Derry will also be a key priority for us and will enable the members of both societies to benefit from the financial strength of the combined society.”

Voted the UK’s second most ethical financial institution following a report from Ethical Consumer into UK and Global banking standards in 2013, Darina Armstrong highlighted Progressive’s commitment to maintaining its high standard of customer service and quality of mortgage lending.

“While many economists believe that the improved outlook is likely to continue in 2014,Progressive will continue to operate as it always has - a traditional building society, offering good value savings and mortgage products and excellent customer service for the benefit of all our members."

EndsFor further information contact Shane Finnegan or Caroline Murphy at Aiken PR on 02890663000 or shane@aikenpr.com