ALTHOUGH the First National Building Society group is not contemplating divorce from mutuality, the temptation of embracing a plc mistress has not been entirely discounted. Group managing director John Smyth says that going down the plc road remains an option "if circumstances arise which made it necessary".

Apart from the building society, the FNBS group incorporates Mortgage Trust in Britain and a deposit taking operation in Guernsey. Annual results issued this week cover the group as a whole and the building society as a separate entity. In the year to end December last, group pre tax profits rose 20 per cent to £24.1 million. The building society, still the dominant income source, lifted pre tax profits 8 per cent (or £1.5 million) to £20.1 million.

An expansion of activities in Britain and Northern Ireland are this year's priorities. This week FNBS introduced a new direct telephone operation in Britain in its first assault on the retail savings market.