One of the most familiar faces in Cumbrian business has announced he is going to retire.

Amyn Fazal, the chief executive of the Penrith Building Society, will stand down at the end of this year.

He told The Cumberland News he was pleased to be leaving the mutual - the smallest in the UK - in good shape.

Mr Fazal added that he has some perhaps unexpected plans for his retirement.

"I had decided that I would be going before I got to 60-years-old," he said.

"At the end of this year I will be three months away from being 60."

Mr Fazal added that he knows who will form the management team which will take over the business and this will be announced publicly later this year.

Born in Mombasa, Kenya, in 1958, Mr Fazal grew up in the country's capital, Nairobi, and went to boarding school in Kent from the age of 14.

He then went on to study politics at the University of Reading, graduating in 1979 when he joined Nationwide, the UK's largest building society, where he stayed for 30 years, holding several senior roles. His last position there was as area director for the west midlands, with responsibilities in more than 200 branches.

After his time with Nationwide he initially worked with the Furness Building Society, based in Barrow, before being approached by a headhunter who told him about the role in Eden.

He joined the Penrith, Britiain's smallest society with about 9,000 members, in 2011 as deputy chief executive, progressing to the top job after 18 months in this role. He is the only person from a BME background to have such a position.

Mr Fazal said: "We have built a good leadership team for the business going forward, you always want to leave things in a better state than you found them."

He was keen to add though that the mutual has always been well run.

"I am really pleased with the way things have gone and I am really excited for the Penrith area, we are going to carry on living here," he said.

He also praised the society's 21 staff, who he said had all played a key role in the business' success.

"It is a society that, I think, embodies the kind of values that society at large is craving - a building society that puts people first," he said.

Mr Fazal also said that the Penrith was being used as a model for other small societies.

This year the organisation - which has one branch in King Street, Penrith - reported record assets of £106.06m for 2016, as well as its second-highest ever figure for mortgage advances of £21.89m and a "stable" pre-tax profit of £202,312.

Mr Fazal said he hopes to stay connected to the building society industry but also has plans to become a writer.

"I have always had a creative side," he joked.

Before accepting a job with Nationwide, he had been due to become a trainee with the Rank Organisation, one of the biggest British film producers of the time. His plans changed though when financial difficulties led to the firm pulling all recruitment.

"I think I will start with some fiction," he said.

Mr Fazal is also an executive coach and motivational speaker and also plans to write on leadership and management.

He will stand down from his job on December 31.