New staff taken on by The West Brom

It is the fourth year in a row the West Bromwich-based building society has cut its losses as it continues the slow recovery from the £48.8m loss in 2008. It says it needs the new staff because it wants to increase the number of mortgages it sells.

It is resuming wide-scale mortgage lending through intermediaries and has just put in place £380m of funding to support new mortgages.

Chief executive Jonathan Westhoff said the 164-year-old society, which currently employs the equivalent of 764 full-time staff, was on course to increase that figure to about 800 over the coming year.

He said: "We are going back into the mortgage sector and are increasing staff numbers for that for the first time in five years.

"We have also completed investment in new mortgage systems, and since the back end of last year, with the market-leading products we offer, have started to see mortgage volumes ahead of expectations.

"The mortgage market is a fast-moving one, with products changing, and we are highly responsive to that and are always reviewing our products to make sure we give great value."

The recruitment comes ahead of the start of construction work later this year on the society's new headquarters in West Bromwich town centre. Mr Westhoff, who has just completed two years at the helm of the West Brom, said he was very pleased with the progress the firm had made under his leadership.

The society, which has 540,000 members, has also just completed a modernisation programme for its 36 branches and is now concentrating on the plans for the new 70,000 sq ft headquarters at Providence Place which will replace the ageing headquarters in High Street.

"We have said over the last three to four years that there was definitely a brighter future for the society," he said.

"There was always going to be a period of losses while we re-invested for the future.

"What is now becoming more prominent is how bright that future is," he added.

The society took in retail savings of £1.7 billion in the 12 months to the end of March and attracted 26,400 new savers – barely half the number it pulled in during the previous year.

The West Brom will be holding its AGM on July 29.