Nationwide profit more than doubles as UK economy recovers
Nationwide Building Society has reported that its profits more than doubled for the half-year, amid the UK’s economic recovery.
The British bank saw pretax profits of £853m for the six months to 30 September, up from £361m last year, according to its interim results published today.
Nationwide, which is owned by its customers, is the second-biggest provider of home loans.
“During the pandemic, strong demand for mortgages, coupled with macro-economic uncertainty, led to higher margins on mortgage lending. This resulted in significantly higher income, and a very strong overall financial performance,” said chief financial officer Chris Rhodes.
Chief executive Joe Garner partly ascribed the strong results to the lender’s mortgage and savings products.
“These have been very popular, resulting in a successful ISA season, increased deposits, higher mortgage lending, and a larger share of the current account market.”
A strong focus on efficiency, the bank said, also helped to keep costs at bay.
The bank’s results were also boosted with cash the lender had set aside for soured debts, but ultimately did not need to use.
As a result Nationwide benefitted from an injection of £34m, compared with the same period last year when the bank took £139m charge against expected bad loans.