Swansea Building Society has reached a substantial landmark in its growth story – in the same month it has unveiled a number of new investments including a £1 million investment in IT and the recruitment of 6 new staff.
The Building Society has built on its 2021 success and growth – when its total assets, mortgage balances, savings, capital and profits all reached record highs – by hitting the landmark £500 million in total assets for the first time.
It achieved that on the back of posting growth of £28.5 million in the first quarter – its highest ever growth figure in any quarter since the Building Society was formed in 1923. To also put this increase in perspective, for the whole of 2021, its total assets grew by £49.1 million to reach £463.5 million, a 12% increase on the previous year’s figure.
That achievement has been reached in the same month it made several other announcements.
It has invested £1 million in its IT and back-office infrastructure, in a deal that replaces all of its hardware, considerably strengthens its cyber security, creates a remote disaster recovery site and enhances the online offering it is able to offer its customers.
It has also increased its workforce with six new recruits. The Society has invested in new talent across a number of departments including Mortgage Underwriting, IT and the mortgage sales team.
The Society remains one of the few financial institutions in the UK that receives no wholesale funding or support from the Bank of England in the form of cheap funding. Its balance sheet is funded entirely by customer savings balances and its own capital reserves built up from retained profits over many years.
The Society continued with its ethos of ‘opening not closing’ branches, in contrast to most financial institutions, and kept all branches open for every business day of the year. This benefitted it through the pandemic as more customers sought a personal, friendly and local service, and many savers, worried by economic uncertainty, also looked to spread their assets.
Alun Williams, Chief Executive of Swansea Building Society, said:
“Even in the context of what has been an extraordinary couple of years for the Society, hitting this landmark and making these announcements in new investments and people feels very special. We have remained positive throughout the challenges of COVID and I feel we have reaped the rewards in terms of customer loyalty and commitment. We remain proud of our ethos of opening, not closing, branches and continue to help normal families every day, to make positive decisions around both savings and owning their own homes.”
