It attributed this to moving its focus away from commercial real estate and on to professional buy-to-let landlords as fewer people worked in offices and the stamp duty holiday caused a rise in residential property activity. 

Meanwhile, Arbuthnot Latham and Co, under which the commercial business operates, reported a 49 per cent decline in profit to £8.3m.  

It said this was down to a reduction in income resulting from a drop in interest margins and maintaining cash reserves at the Bank of England instead of placing them in higher yielding money markets.  

Overall, the Arbuthnot Banking Group reported a loss before tax of £1.1m last year, down from £7m profit in 2019. This was affected by its investment into Arbuthnot Specialist Finance which was launched in 2019. 

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The money put into the brand saw the specialist finance arm report losses of £1m, compared to a loss of £1.2m the year before. 

Lending appetite in this area was also subdued because of the pandemic which impacted business volumes. 

Sir Henry Angest, chairman and chief executive of Arbuthnot, said: “In a year in which the pandemic and associated lockdowns impacted businesses, Arbuthnot delivered a resilient performance and continued to make good operational progress.  

“After a positive start to 2020, growth in lending balances and profits paused from the onset of the lockdown, as historically low base rates and a prudent reduction in the bank’s credit appetite took their toll.”  

He added: “We also had considerable success in growing our client base, with the bank opening a significant number of new accounts in 2020.  

“This progress, together with growing demand for lending and the increased diversity of our business leaves us well placed to resume our growth.”