Yorkshire Building Society's chief executive today celebrated record lending and reduced profits by boasting: "We are about value for members, not profits for shareholders."

Chief executive David Anderson, said the group's reduction in pre-tax profits for 2002 - down six per cent to £65.3 million - was part of a plan to maintain the mutual's financial strength so members reap the rewards. Its profits for the year were down from £47 million to £46.1m.

A bullish Mr Anderson said: "We could have made more profits at the expense of lower savings rates, but that's not what we are about - we want to achieve the best possible value for our members."

The man who heads a team of 2,000 said that the society - which is in effect owned and run for the benefit of its members - offered saving rates on average a quarter of a per cent higher than the big banks.

And he said 93 per cent of the society's products were in the top 'quartile' for long-term value compared with deals from other providers.

The society, the third largest building society with 131 branches across the UK, said its net interest margin was believed to be the lowest of any major lender and claimed it demonstrated "the best value on the High Street."

The company, whose headquarters are on Rooley Lane, Bradford, also noted a record year for gross lending - at £2.49 billion, up 26 per cent on 2001.

But Mr Anderson, who said the company had also seen its focus for mortgage lending return to its northern heartland instead of tapping into the over-heating southern market, felt last year's results would be difficult to emulate.

The mutual also gained a £2 million windfall when it cashed in half the shares it maintained after selling a share company two years ago.

Looking at the state of the stock market, Mr Anderson said: "Perhaps we should have sold them all then!"

Today's results showed savers were also putting more aside for a rainy day, with Yorkshire Building Society seeing its balances rising by 70 per cent, up to £690 million.