A dip in the annual profit has been reported by a well-known high street building society.

Nationwide reported an after tax statutory profit of £1,054million, which, compared to last year is a 17 per cent decrease. Nationwide blamed the decrease on increased competition.

The underlying profit of the company is £1,030million which is £307million less than 2016.

Nationwide CEO Joe Garner said: "As a member-owned organisation, we don't seek to maximise our profits but to manage them in our members' interests.

"We make conscious choices about how we distribute our profitability between strategic investment, capital generation and member financial benefit.

"Our success this year allowed us to improve our capital strength and continue to invest in growing the Society.

"At the same time, we were able to give back £505million to members which included maintaining selected savings rates while passing on the base rate decrease in full to mortgage borrowers.

"The combination of the low interest rate environment and our decisions to protect savings rates for longer led to an exceptional year for member value.

"We can make these choices thanks to our success in attracting and retaining members.

"Our record year for mortgage lending included helping 75,000 first time buyers onto the housing ladder.

"We opened a record number of current accounts; with almost one in five of people switching choosing Nationwide, and Nationwide achieved a new milestone, becoming the UK's top choice for current accounts.

"We protected our savers with rates a third higher than the market average, leading to a growth in member deposits of £5.8billion.

"While we saw record use of online services driven by our mobile app, we know that members value our branch network, which is why we are investing £80million in upgrading branches this year.

"We have also opened a branch in Glastonbury, Somerset, which had been left without a bank, to test the viability of opening branches with community support.

"If successful, we may choose to open other branches where there is demand from a community."

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