Good progress for Yorkshire Bank as performance continues to improve
YORKSHIRE and Clydesdale Banks today reported good progress in the first half of the year as their performance continued to improve.
Owner National Australia Bank today released results for its UK banking operations for the six months to March 31, which saw pre-tax cash earnings more than double from £44m to £89m.
Cash earnings of £73m were reported, up from £33m, while underlying profits came in at £144m, up 6.7%.
Against what it described as a relatively flat mortgage market, mortgage growth of £1.4bn was achieved.
The charge to provide for bad and doubtful debts was down 39.6% to £55m, while operating expenses reduced by £14m (down 3.9%).
The impact of legacy conduct related matters continued to negatively impact on performance, with additional provisions of £13m raised in the half, the bank said.
Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) provision balances stood at £126m at March 31, from £152m at September 30, with no additional provisions raised in the half.
“While complaint volumes are down by 49% on the prior corresponding period and down 16% on the prior half, the rate of reduction is slower and more volatile than anticipated,” the bank said.
“We continue to work with the FCA to ensure we have a robust complaints process which delivers the best outcomes for customers. We expect to revisit a significant number of complaints as part of this commitment. Provision levels remain under review and are subject to a number of significant inherent risks and uncertainties.”
David Thorburn, chief executive, said: “We’ve continued to make good progress in the six month period to 31 March, more than doubling pre-tax cash earnings to £89 million, reducing charges to provide for bad and doubtful debts by 40% and increasing our lending to homebuyers by £1.4bn.
“This is an encouraging picture, and we remain determined to make further progress in our support for customers. As a result, we’re actively putting a number of important building blocks in place.
“A key example is the appointment of one of our most experienced executives, Debbie Crosbie, as an executive director to lead our new cross-business Customer Trust & Confidence initiative. Launched in January, this work is dedicated to ensuring fairness for customers in everything we do and underlines the strength of our customer commitment.
“We’re also making a significant investment in customer service improvements and there’s a great deal of positive change underway. This ranges from having doubled the number of branches open on Saturdays, to running over 200 events across the country providing advice and support to businesses. Later this year we’re extending Post Office access to all customers and providing full mobile phone payment capability via Paym.
“We’re committed to building a better bank for our customers. I recognise there’s a great deal more to do but I firmly believe we’re on the right track.”
