Buckinghamshire Building Society holds Annual General Meeting 2021
22 April 2021
Buckinghamshire Building Society held its Annual General Meeting on 21 April 2021 at its Head Office in Chalfont St Giles. Due to the pandemic restrictions, members were encouraged to cast their vote by proxy this year, either online or by post.
Discussing 2020, Gerard O’Keeffe, CEO Buckinghamshire Building Society, explained that 2020 had been an extraordinary year by any standards and the Society had remained open for business throughout. The Society has emerged from 2020 more strongly than ever, ‘ready to support our members, our community and our economy in 2021.’
Although new lending was down on the prior year, the Society indicated that it expects to significantly increase new lending in 2021 as its focus is to make its contribution to supporting the economic recovery, particularly in Buckinghamshire. The Society granted over 300 mortgage payment holidays to help borrowers to overcome Covid-related cash flow difficulties and it will continue to actively support its borrowers in similar ways. Although the Bank of England reduced interest rates to their lowest level in centuries, the Society continued to seek to maintain its savings rates as much as possible, recognizing the impact on savers incomes, attracting over £10m in net inflows.
Speaking at the Annual General Meeting, Gerard O’Keeffe, CEO, Buckinghamshire Building Society announced that Buckinghamshire Building Society has donated over £16,000 to local charities throughout 2020.
In addition, it was announced that the member’s charity of choice for 2020, Lindengate, a Buckinghamshire-based Mental Health Charity, will receive a donation of £6,000 from Buckinghamshire Building Society through its Charity Partner, Heart of Bucks.
For the year 2021, the Members have once again voted and the charity that they have chosen to support this year is Restore Hope, a charity based in Latimer Park, Chesham that works with children, families and young adults from across Buckinghamshire who are facing challenges in their life. Restore Hope offers them support based on their unique circumstances and Buckinghamshire Building Society are delighted to support this excellent cause throughout 2021.
The Society achieved a profit before tax of £0.9m in 2020. The Board is pleased with this performance considering the severe limitations to business growth encountered throughout 2020.
Buckinghamshire Building Society is a mutually owned Society, where its members are its shareholders and giving back to those members and the local Buckinghamshire community is at the heart of what they do.
Dick Jenkins, Chairman, Buckinghamshire Build Society summarized, ‘We are a longstanding and trusted Building Society that provides a home for people’s money as well as money for their home, and we are well positioned as we move into 2021 to continue to build on our strong foundations and grow our member base across savings and mortgages. We are also delighted to continue to support and give back to the Buckinghamshire Community during this challenging time.’
About the Buckinghamshire Building Society
Buckinghamshire Building Society is an award winning, mutually owned independent Building Society, first founded in 1907. The Society is based in the beautiful Buckinghamshire village of Chalfont St Giles and offers simple savings accounts to its members, as well as specialist mortgage products to customers, through intermediaries. We are dedicated to providing excellent customer service and pride ourselves on the work we do to give back to our local community.
