According to The Co-operative Bank’s latest financial results, this figure for new mortgage applications has exceeded the whole of 2023 for applications of around £2.3bn.

In the first quarter of the year, new mortgage applications came to around £1.6bn, and in the second quarter, there was around £1bn of new mortgage applications.

It said it has a mortgage pipeline of around £1.1bn, almost double the figure from last year, which the firm said would “positively impact” the second half of the year.

The company stated that gross lending came to around £2.7bn in the period, which is stable on last year.

Looking at loans for 2024, in the first quarter, around 52% were for two-year deals, 17% were for three-year products and 31% were for five-year products.

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In the second quarter, two-year deals accounted for 54% of new business completions, 7% were for three-year products and 39% were for five-year deals.

The company’s mortgage accounts in three months of arrears or more came to 0.26% at the half-year mark, which is up from 0.21% at the end of 2023.

The Co-operative Bank’s underlying profit came to £47.1m in the first half of this year, which compares to £72.2m at the end of last year.

Its net interest margin (NIM) was pegged at 184 basis points, which is in line with last year.

The bank said that total statutory costs rose from £203.9m to £220.2m, which includes “exceptional project spend” mainly relating to its mortgage and savings transformation programme of £6.2m. The firm said that this was “now largely complete”.

Other exceptional costs rose to £8.6m driven by “restructuring costs”, which it said would “generate future cost savings”.

The firm has created a new mortgage platform, so all mortgage customers are now on one platform instead of four. Mortgage servicing has also been moved in house.

The firm said that this means there is more “agility on product pricing and launches”, and the average mortgage size has also grown from £149,000 to £217,000.

The Co-operative Bank said that this also allows for “further digital capability”, improved operations efficiency and resilience.

 

Performance ‘in line with expectations’

Nick Slape (pictured), CEO of The Co-operative Bank, said: “In the first half of 2024, we have delivered an underlying profit before tax of £47.1m, which is in line with expectations, and we remain on track to achieve all our guidance metrics for the year.

“I am pleased to announce that we have successfully completed all migration activity in our Simplification programme, with only the decommissioning of the legacy estate left to complete in the second half of the year. This marks a key milestone in our plan to drive commercial value and operational resilience, while improving the customer experience.”

He added that the signing of sale and purchase agreement with Coventry Building Society marked a “return to mutualisation and follows the delivery of the strategy set in 2019 to turn around the bank by de-risking and simplifying, returning to profitability and delivering a liquidity event for shareholders”.