SCOTTISH Widows Bank, the telephone-based mortgage and savings bank, today rolled out an 18 per cent jump in pre-tax profit to £28.9 million, compared with £24.5m previously.
It was the 12th successive year of growth that the Edinburgh-based bank had enjoyed and was helped by strong performances from mortgage lending and deposits.
And SWB aims to continue the trend, helped by its first television advertising campaign
later this year. SWB - a unit of insurance group Scottish Widows, which in turn is owned by Lloyds TSB - said that net mortgage lending grew 23 per cent to £1.03 billion in the year to December 31, taking total mortgage balances to £5.6bn.
The bank also saw an increase in people saving, with net deposits up eight per cent - £195m - and pushing total retail deposits to £2.69bn.
Adding to the strong performance was a further reduction in its cost-income ratio from 45 per cent to 42 per cent "through system improvements and further economies of scale".
Graeme Hartop, managing director of SWB, said: "Our business continues to go from strength to strength, as demonstrated by our strong performance in 2006. SWB was launched 12 years ago with 15 staff and today employs almost 400.
"Year-on-year we have experienced exceptional financial growth, which is a tremendous achievement given the competitive backdrop."
