Building society IMB yesterday released a $20.0 million operating profit after tax, an increase of 13.5 per cent on the previous year, despite a 15 per cent drop in loan approvals to $952 million.Even with the dramatic drop in loan approvals, chief executive Wayne Morris is upbeat on the ninth year in a row of increased profit, and reiterated the building society did not want to give credit quality away in chasing volume targets."Those numbers (lending) were lower than what we were budgeting, due to the impact of interest rate rises and the tighter housing market."We are located predominately in south eastern New South Wales, and the Sydney, Illawarra and south coast markets have been very tough on the housing sector."IMB has a very nominal $4 million exposure to low document lending, and utilises third party channels should a member want to pursue a no document loan."Having exposure to the low and no doc market is totally contrary to where we want to be strategically."We want good asset strength with no degradation in asset quality."IMB has a number of initiatives mooted for the coming year, including an ongoing program headed up by an internal manager to review processes in the business to improve efficiency and service."As an example, we have a conscious program going right through the organisation to track loans at all times, from a service standard point of view we have targets for approved loans to a conditional stage within 48 hours," Morris said."More importantly, it's better for member services which is the main focus."Morris says preliminary plans are in place for a branch expansion from the current 38, targeting the western and southern corridors of Sydney and also ACT. No numbers or time frames are being released yet, with the main concern, "Finding the right sites before going ahead."The 25 point official interest rate rise was passed on by the building society on Monday.