Stuart Bernau, Nationwide's commercial and treasury director.THE chief executive of Nationwide Building Society, Philip Williamson has, not too surprisingly, called the last year "exceptional" after the company's annual results, released yesterday, showed that net lending had quadrupled from £1.8 billion last year to £7.3 billion this year.

In addition, the company recorded a pre-tax profit of £353.3 million, up 8.5 per cent from £325.7 million last year.

The high street lender's results to April 4 this year also show that the company's total assets rose by 15 per cent from £74.5 billion to £85.4 billion.

A jubilant Mr Williamson said: "This has been an exceptional year. Our financial performance has exceeded our expectations and has been driven by a strong business performance in all our core markets.

"We are really punching above our weight."

Mr Williamson went on to explain that the company's increase in mortgage lending had been achieved through a "fair" mortgage policy, which had not only attracted homebuyers and re-mortgagers, but had also helped retain existing customers.

"All in all our focus on fairness has delivered strong business results as well as making our members better off," he said.

Other highlights included in the company's end of year appraisal include:

400,000 new current accounts opened, taking the total number to nearly 2.3 million

200,000 new credit cards issued

A gross capital rise from £4.3bn (2002) to £5.1bn.

400,000 new insurance policies sold

The Society's principal measure of efficiency (the ratio of costs as a percentage of mean total assets) improved to 1.02 per cent, against 1.04 per cent last year, it's 14th successive year of improvement

Customers benefiting by an estimated £510m through better interest rates and lower charges

According to Stuart Bernau, Nationwide's commercial and treasury director, the company is especially pleased to have proved its doubters wrong.

"When, a couple of years ago, we decided we could change the mortgage market, there were a lot of people saying we were brave but naive," he said.

"And of course our initial results led to those people saying, we told you so, you can't do business by principles alone. Yet here we are two years later, and we've come through with very high net mortgage lending and savings do well."

He added it was the company's core value of 'fairness' which he believed was responsible for its success.

"What we believe people don't like is that if you happen to be a loyal member, and you suddenly find your lender has a better deal to attract a new customer, you'll think, 'I've been with them 10 years and I can't get the best rate'."

And he paid compliment to the company's 2,500-strong Swindon workforce."Quite simply, we couldn't achieve this without our people.

"And our results are great news for Swindon. It not only provides security of employment for existing staff, but also means we're always on the lookout for good people to come and join us."