Victoria Mutual Building Society may have had a difficult time building its savings base last year, but that did not prevent it from nearly doubling the value of the new mortgages it wrote, when compared 2006.

According to the banking group - which reported a near 20 per cent increase in profit, to $651.4 million - it last year advanced approximately $7 billion in new mortgages, a jump of 180 per cent on the previous year.

"This significant growth in our mortgage portfolio has been achieved without compromising quality, as our mortgage loans in arrears for more than 90 days continue to be well within industry and regulatory standards of less than four per cent of the portfolio," chairman Roy Hutchinson said in a report to members.

Profitable subsidiaries

Hutchinson told last week's annual general meeting that all major subsidiaries remained profitable in 2007, although not always at hoped for levels.

This included the Victoria Mutual Insurance Company Limited, which returned profit of $56.2 million up from $13.9 million the previous year.

However, the performance of Victoria Mutual Wealth Manage-ment Limited was below expectations. Its profit fell to $48.5 million, from the previous year's $67.3 million.

The Victoria Mutual Property Services Limited also showed a decline from $5.8 million in 2006 to $2.5 million last year.

There was a decline in the Victoria Money Transfer Services Limited. That subsidiary posted $2.1 million in 2007, down from $6.9 million last year.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com