FURNESS Building Society has notched up a hat-trick of records after achieving its highest-ever monthly mortgage lending figure, totalling nearly £18 million, in April.

The amount broke the previous monthly lending record by £1m.

It comes after the society received a record number of mortgage applications in February and issued a record number of mortgage offers in March.

Chief executive Rob Cairns said: "This is a great start to 2004, beating a past record consecutively for three months running.

"Our success is not just down to the highly competitive mortgage products we have on offer, but also to the great personal service given by our staff.

"The last three years have been record lending years for the society and now we hope 2004 is going to be the fourth year running."