Yorkshire Building Society has posted strong first half of 2023 results, with gross lending totalling £4.2bn. Although this is down from £5.3bn in the last period in 2022, the society has helped 23,000 people to own a home, seeing mortgage balances increase to £45.9bn, up from £45.2bn in December 2022. Savings balances also increased in H1 2023 to £45.6bn, increasing from £42bn in H2 2022, 320,000 new savings accounts have been opened since the end of H1 2022. The member-owned mutual achieved a pre-tax profit of £180.6m in the six months to 30 June and delivered a core operating profit of £246.4m. Chief executive officer at Yorkshire Building Society, Susan Allen, said: “Despite inflationary pressures and our continued investment to transform our business for the future increasing our costs, we’ve strengthened profitability, which as a mutual building society with no external shareholders, will be reinvested into the society. After years of historically low savings rates, I’m pleased we’ve been at the forefront of giving back to savers as the rate landscape changed. So far this year we’ve passed on the majority of bank rate rises to our savings range, launched new loyalty savings accounts for members who have been with us a year or longer, and set rates that were on average 1.04 percentage points higher than the market average. This will go some way to supporting our members as they navigate the current cost of living challenges.”

Research by Scottish Friendly has found that more than one in five (22%) parents have borrowed money from their children’s savings in order to help cover the cost of rising household bills and to pay down debts. The survey of 1,000 UK parents found that 64% of those that have borrowed money form their children have done in the last 12 months, with 33% using the money to pay for household bills. Around a third (32%) used the money to pay for an unexpected cost and 20% paid down debts with this money. Savings specialist at Scottish Friendly, Kevin Brown, said: “Borrowing money from their children’s savings is a last resort for parents desperately trying to make ends meet. Inflation may be slowing but living costs are still rising and that’s pushing more families into the red. Budgeting only gets you so far and if borrowing money isn’t an option, then dipping into your family’s savings is a difficult choice many are being forced to make. As a general rule, it’s important for households to have some money held in cash that they can easily access in case of emergency without penalty and free of charge. But if you’re saving for your children’s future then you should think about how best to maximise your potential returns over the longer-term.

MorganAsh has added a new triage service to its MorganAsh Resilience System (MARS) vulnerability software, allowing for financial advisers to identify when to obtain an annuity quotation for a client. Using health data collected by the vulnerability assessment, MARS makes a recommendation on the likelihood of an enhancement, and whether it will be marginal or significant. Advisers can then choose how they wish to choose to progress, with MARS providing guidance, identifying if an online health assessment should be sufficient, or if a more in-depth medical assessment by a MorganAsh nurse is more likely to give the consumer a better rate.

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