Britain's Nationwide annual profit nearly doubles
Nationwide's finances were lifted by a strong economic recovery from pandemic lockdowns, including a 6.9 billion pound leap in gross mortgage lending as it benefitted from a buoyant housing market
Nationwide Building Society reported its annual profit nearly doubled on Friday, as it largely shrugged off the impact of the Covid-19 crisis and rising inflation on Britain's economy.
The customer-owned lender reported pretax profits for the fiscal year ended 4 April of 1.6 billion pounds ($2.00 billion), up from 823 million pounds the previous year.
"Our financial performance for the year was better than anticipated, as market conditions recovered more strongly than expected over the course of the year, leading to significantly higher profits," Chief Executive Joe Garner said.
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It was Garner's last set of results at the helm before handing over to former TSB Chief Executive Debbie Crosbie on 2 June.
Britain's second-biggest provider of home loans, Nationwide competes with the country's big banks but unlike them is owned by its customers.
Nationwide's finances were lifted by a strong economic recovery from pandemic lockdowns, including a 6.9 billion pound leap in gross mortgage lending as it benefitted from a buoyant housing market.
The lender nonetheless said member benefit, a measure it uses to measure benefits it offers that better the market average, remained below its target at 325 million pounds due to low interest rates and strong price competition in the red-hot mortgage market.
Its listed big banking rivals such as Lloyds and NatWest last month reported rising profits but warned of a possible hit to growth from Britain's looming cost of living crisis as fuel and food costs soar.
($1 = 0.8013 pounds)
