THE boss of Nationwide Building Society has restated its commitment to its “fabulous” Bournemouth operation.

Chief executive Joe Garner’s comments came as the society revealed profits had fallen by 23 per cent – a drop which he said reflected a decision to reward members well.

Underlying profit at the mutual, which employs around 1,000 people locally, fell to £1.03billion from £1.337bn in the past financial year.

In a conference call involving the Daily Echo, Mr Garner said the society had chosen to balance members’ interests with profitability. He said members benefited by more than half a billion pounds from interest rates, fees and incentives that were better than the market average.

“In other words, we chose to balance our profitability with conscious decisions on pricing so that we could reward members well. Inevitably, this constrained our net interest margin and our profitability,” he said.

The society – which has around 700 staff at Portman House in Richmond Hill, Bournemouth – has pledged to improve efficiency and keep down costs.

But Mr Garner said of its local operation: “There are no major changes planned. We’re absolutely committed to Bournemouth. We have a fabulous office there that provides a real unique range of quite specialist skills.”

Around one in three people locally are said to have a Nationwide account, partly as a result of the mutual’s takeover of the local Portman Building Society.

Mr Garner said: “We have quite a strong branch presence as well as a historic presence. We will obviously continue to evolve as our member needs evolve but we greatly appreciate our presence in Bournemouth and don’t expect any change to that.”

The society has reported record membership of 15million, with 7.8m “engaged” members. It is to invest £80m in branches in 2017-18 and is trialling a new branch in Glastonbury, Somerset, in response to local demand.

But it is pulling out of several markets, including car insurance, consumer lending and inheritance tax planning advice.

Despite pledging to improve efficiency, Mr Garner played down suggestions of job cuts or branch closures.

“Although we are focusing on efficiency, our total expenditure is still forecast to rise over the coming years,” he said.

“This is not an absolute reduction in costs. It truly is a drive to become more efficient as we continue to grow and that’s the expectation.”

He said the number of branches had remained “broadly stable” and that the value people placed on local branches was one reason for the society’s growth.

Mr Garner said the society was “well placed” to support members at a time of uncertainty as the Brexit negotiations continued.

“It’s fair to say that the economy has performed much better than many people expected since the referendum, with the UK one of the fastest growing developed economies last year,” he said.

“However, recent data has been sending some more mixed signals.”

He said consumer confidence remained high despite negative wage growth and a slowdown in sales. If consumers did need to “retrench”, they would prioritise mortgage and rent payments.