In its latest quarterly results, it also has a strong mortgage pipeline of £1.2bn, which is up from £900m pipeline in the same period last year.
The company said that it had completed the insourcing of Capita colleagues who perform mortgage servicing, so all its mortgage teams were now within the bank. This involves the transfer of remaining 400 operations colleagues into the firm.
The Co-operative terminated its outsourcing contract in 2021, saying that it would bring the services offered by Capita in-house.
The bank reported a profit of £30.6m and an underlying profit of £35.1m, which is an increase of £100,000 and £7.6m respectively compared to the same period last year.
On the arrears side, it said that core mortgage accounts with more than three months in arrears came to 0.14 per cent, which is up from 0.13 per cent in 2022.
The average core mortgage loan to value rose slightly to 55 per cent in the first quarter of the year, an increase from 53.5 per cent in 2022.
The Co-operative also reported an impairment credit of £500,000, which compared to a £500,000 charge in the same period last year.
The firm said that this reflected “releases for affordability across the secured portfolio” alongside support now available to leaseholders surrounding cladding issues.
The Co-operative ‘delivered a strong business performance’
Nick Slape (pictured), the Co-operative’s chief executive, said that, in the first three months of the year, the firm had “delivered a strong business performance”, pointing to a statutory profit before tax of £30.6m and a statutory return on tangible equity of 15.1 per cent.
He continued: “I remain confident that the bank is well-positioned in the current uncertain macroeconomic environment, with surplus capital and liquidity and a low-risk simple balance sheet.”
Slape confirmed that it had completed the insourcing of Capita colleagues and are “focused on migrating customers to our new savings platform”.
“Our unique position as the leading ethical bank in the UK, combined with targeted investment to transform and simplify our operations, will enable us to continue to make it easier for our customers to interact with us, whilst delivering sustainable returns for our shareholders,” he added.
