THE astonishing success of the Skipton Building Society and its now 15 subsidiaries continues with the announcement yesterday of more growth and profits in the half-year financial results.

The group has been growing, and adding new subsidiaries, for the past decade, and it now boasts assets of £8.7 billion and pre-tax profits for the half year were £38 million, both up by more than 11% over last year.

The Skipton employs more than 7,000 people and has recently opened offices in East Lancashire and Northern Ireland. This year's growth was even more impressive because it came on top of a huge burden of red tape imposed by changing banking regulations.

Chief Executive John Goodfellow thanked the staff for working hard to bring in these changes and added: "The objective behind our growth is simple. The more the Society and its subsidiaries prosper, the greater the level of profit from which the Society can continue to build real value for our members."