Paragon Banking Group sees ‘strong’ start to the year amid lending surge
Paragon Banking Group saw lending surge in the latest quarter, with the challenger bank praising a “strong” performance.
According to a trading update published today, total new lending in the three months to 31 December 2021 surged by 35.7 per cent to £708m while the volume of new buy-to-let mortgage advances increased by 36.8 per cent to £408.5m. The board praised a performance “in line with expectations” for the first half of the year, revealing that net balance sheet loans topped £13.7bn over the past 12 months, up by 7.7 per cent.
“The momentum that underpinned the delivery of our 2021 results has been maintained through the first quarter of our new financial year, with strong new business flows, improving margins and capital strength generated from our focus on specialist customers and markets,” said Nigel Terrington, chief executive.
In the savings section of the business Paragon Banking also saw improvements, with deposit balances increasing to £9.6bn during the quarter.
Amid the strong results Paragon said it is pushing ahead with an application for buy-to-let and preparations on the application for the development finance assets at an advanced stage.
Looking ahead into 2022 despite macro-economic uncertainties as a result of Covid-19, the group said its operational and financial performance during the first quarter had been strong with the board’s guidance unchanged for the new financial year.
Read more: Paragon Banking Group reports record full year profits on lending surge