Scottish Widows Bank reports strong growth for 2007

Scottish Widows Bank, the internet and telephone based mortgage and deposits bank, has announced its 2007 annual results, reporting profits before tax of £30.4m for the year.

The figure represents a 5.3% increase on 2006 and reflects the underlying strength of the business.

Despite testing market conditions, net mortgage growth for the year was £240m, an increase of 4.3%, bringing total retail lending at the end of December 2007 to £5.86 bn.

Total retail deposits for the full year were £2.54 bn. This was down 5.4% on 2006 reflecting intense price-led competition in the savings market.

Graeme Hartop, managing director, Scottish Widows Bank comments: " Our overall performance last year was strong, against a background of considerable change and volatility in the market. We saw high volumes of mortgage business during the second half of the year with a record-breaking peak in application values in October.

“In terms of our own activity, key highlights were the expansion of our niche mortgage range to include the Key Worker Mortgage and the launch of our internet banking service, offering customers an additional way of administering their accounts with us. We also moved into the final phase of implementing our new administration platform, an important milestone and something which is central to our growth plans."

Operational efficiency is good with a cost/income ratio of 41% and credit risks continue to be managed exceptionally well with arrears figures well below the industry average.
Graeme Hartop continues:

"The combination of a strong financial services brand, a commitment to long term value and customer service, and our experience in niche markets has proven to be the right balance to endure what has been a testing year for the banking market.

“Looking to the year ahead, one of our key priorities is to continue growing our savings business and we already have a number of deposits developments underway including the recently launched Premier Client Account, a savings account aimed at solicitors and their clients. We will continue to build on the successes of last year and evolve our niche markets throughout 2008."