Kent Reliance Building Society has confirmed it is seeking up to 10 voluntary redundancies from its Medway office.

The Chatham-based mutual, which has been one of the fastest-growing societies over the past 10 years, recorded record profits last year, and has the lowest management expenses in the industry - 41p per £100 of assets.

But it said it needed to cut costs in a downturn that had weakened demand for property loans.

The society employs around 55 people at its Sun Pier HQ, and just under 100 in a processing centre in Bangalore, India.

Most of its local outlets were moved to agencies some time ago and staff there are not employees of the society.

Mike Lazenby, chief executive, told around 200 members at the society’s annual meeting in Commissioner’s House, Chatham Historic Dockyard: "If at the end of the day the choice is becoming less efficient and mlosing money or making some people redundant, then I’m sorry but we will make people redundant."

Kent Reliance has invited staff interested in volunteering for redundancy to apply by the end of this week.

Deputy chief executive Rob Procter said that some volunteers may not be allowed to go for operational reasons.

Meanwhile, the society reported post-tax profits of £8.9 million, thanks mainly to an £8.55m one-off sale of wholesale debt. Assets rose to £2.34m.

It also made provision of £3.2m for possible bad debts from an alleged fraud on buy-to-let property. But it expected to recoup much of the potential loss.

The society said it had suspended loans to new borrowers in Jersey and Guernsey, a subsidiary Channel Islands operation that has generated substantial business in recent years.

Mr Procter added: "We haven’t grown by as much this year and we don’t envisage growing as much this coming year. Business volumes will be lower because of the economic situation. We’re not doing as much lending as we were."

Members overwhelmingly backed directors’ pay packages to Mr Lazenby (£481,000 including salary and pension contribution), Mr Procter and finance director Bob Scruton (£302,000 each), and other directors.

Society chairman Malcolm Mackenzie defended the remuneration, saying the society had to attract and retain "the best we can afford." The society’s executive team had delivered an "outstanding" performance.

"I doubt there will be many in our industry that will match the improved performance that our society has managed at a time of crisis such as we are currently enduring," he said.