Yorkshire Bank owner sees improvement
YORKSHIRE Bank owner National Australia Bank today said it had improved its performance in the first quarter of its trading year thanks to higher revenues and lower bad debts.
Last October the bank announced a 22% profits slump as its Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks in the UK reported losses of £183m.
Despite continuing rumours that it may be looking offload the UK banks, Australia’s fourth biggest lender today said its restructuring plans in the UK were ongoing and starting to deliver benefits to its business, which saw first quarter profits climb by 3.6% as it expanded business lending margins and cut bad debts.
David Thorburn, chief executive of Yorkshire and Clydesdale, said: “Good progress has been made in the relatively short period since the outcomes of our Strategic Review were announced in April. The restructuring continues to gather momentum and, while there is still much more to be done, our clear focus remains on further strengthening the business through a simplified business model built on our traditional strengths.”
The review, which it launched last year and said would make the UK operations more competitive, has already seen it close 38 of its financial solutions centres and will lead to around 1,400 job losses by 2015 and see the Yorkshire retrench from the South of England into its heartland in the North of England and Midlands.
It said that it has transferred the UK Commercial Real Estate portfolio from Clydesdale Bank to National Australia Bank with the portfolio reducing by a further £0.3bn.
NAB as a whole saw unaudited cash earnings, which exclude some one-time costs, rise to around £1bn for the three months to December 31.
The Melbourne-based bank, run by chief executive Cameron Clyne is trying to revive earnings growth after provisions at the bank’s UK operations led to the first decline in annual profit since 2009.
“NAB delivered a stronger result for the quarter reflecting the underlying strength of our core Australian business and improved earnings in the UK”, said Mr Clyne.
“This is a pleasing result, especially given operating conditions remain challenging both in Australia and the UK, notwithstanding recent improvements in financial markets,” he added.
