Banking in brief: Solid performance for CYBG; Skipton hails robust figures but Yorkshire Building Society profits dip

David Duffy, the chief executive of CYBG, has hailed a solid performance this year after beginning a £350m investment in digital.

The Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking group has been making major investments in its infrastructure and growth since its divestment from the National Australia Bank last year.

It has now reported in its interims solid mortgage growth of 5.8% for the nine months to 30 June, and core SME growth of 4.7%, with a “robust” pipeline supporting our £6bn 3-year lending commitment.

Duffy commented: “We have delivered another solid performance this quarter, with increased momentum in mortgage and core SME balance growth despite the competitive environment. Further operational improvements during the year have enabled customer loan growth and cost efficiencies.

“We remain on track to deliver our guidance for FY2017, and now expect underlying operating costs to be below £680m which is testament to the success of our restructuring programme.

“While the economic and political environment in the UK remains uncertain, we are focused on delivering our strategic objectives. We remain confident that the medium term strategy we outlined at our capital markets day in September 2016 will differentiate us from our competitors and deliver our FY19 targets as we seek to build a better bank for our customers and staff and improve returns for our shareholders.”

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Skipton Building Society has hailed a “robust” year, increasing its membership with a 25,907 increase in customers to 886,310.

It has also recorded a group profit before tax of £67.0m and a 19% increase in underlying Group profit before tax to £87.4m.

Savings balances increased by £500m, a growth rate of 3.7% during the six month period and mortgage balances increased by £0.7bn.

David Cutter, Skipton’s Group chief executive, said: “Skipton has delivered another strong performance during the first six months of 2017, further strengthening its CET 1 capital ratio to 28.9%, growing savings balances by £0.5bn, mortgage balances by £0.7bn, and underlying profit before tax by 19.4% to £87.4m. Customer numbers increased by 25,907, and for the third year in a row the Society was included in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For.

“The robustness of the business was recognised by the global credit rating agency Moody’s, who upgraded the Society for the third time in four years.”

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Yorkshire Building Society said that its statutory profit before tax reached £92.3m for the six months to 30 June, down from £99.9m in the same period last year.

However YBS said that this meant it had achieved “sustainable” levels, and core operating profit for the six months was £84.2m, against £62.5m in the same period in 2016.

Mortgage balances and gross lending remained relatively static at of £34.0bn and £3.4bn respectively.

Mike Regnier, YBS chief executive, said: “We look to make a sustainable level of profit to allow our business to grow at a sensible and healthy rate.

“Our current performance allows the Group to build on its financial foundation, focus on an experience for our customers in line with our vision, “to be the most trusted provider of financial services in the UK” and provide them with good-value products.

“In working towards our vision, we monitor how trusted we are by both our customers and non-customers alike. We use a YouGov survey, which asks people if they agree that “Yorkshire Building Society is an organisation that you can trust”. We have been ranked consistently in the top five, and as high as 2nd, during the first six months of 2017.”