Bradford & Bingley has become a governing member of a new body designed to promote excellence in business across the North of England.

Launched in March, North of England Excellence is an amalgamation of the former Excellence Yorkshire and Excellence North West organisations.

They have been unified to create a single force to encourage organisations to aspire to world-class standards.

The new organisation will serve as an advisory and networking service to its members.

Bradford & Bingley is the first governing member to be based in Yorkshire. Bosses claim the move will underline the bank's commitment to achieving world-class standards.

Operations director Havana Abid will now take up a seat on the board of North of England Excellence.

The appointment will allow B&B bosses the opportunity to share their tips for best practice with other leading businesses in the region and benefit a wide range of services including seminars and consultancy.

Mr Abid said: "Bradford & Bingley has a long and proud history of helping people build a better future for themselves and the community around them. Becoming a governing member of North of England Excellence shows our commitment not only to Yorkshire businesses, but to the community as a whole."

Bradford & Bingley is one of seven governing members, the others being the North West Development Agency, United Utilities, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool City Council, Urenco and Venture Housing Association.

David Teale, chief executive of North of England Excellence, said: "We are delighted to welcome Bradford & Bingley to the board.

"Becoming a governing member demonstrates their commitment to achieving the highest standards. I am sure their expertise in customer service and quality will be of great benefit in helping other businesses across the North to enhance their performance."

B&B currently has a record amount of business in the pipeline, with profits forecast to be £367.6 million for 2007.

Chief executive Steve Crawshaw confirmed the company's recent strong progress at its AGM in April. The FTSE100 business has profited greatly from recent growth in the UK's buy to let market due to growing demand from increased numbers of immigrants and students.