Secure Trust Bank new lending rises to nearly £524m in Q1 2023

According to its latest financial results, it is also a 7.2 per cent increased from the first quarter of last year.

The lender said that its business finance showed the strongest quarterly lending result since Q2 last year, and consumer finance “maintained a strong lending performance” for the fourth consecutive quarter.

The firm added that market share gains were made in retail finance, which grew to 11.9 per cent from 11.4 per cent in December last year.

Vehicle finance market share stayed stable at 1.1 per cent.

Net lending came to £3bn in the quarter and its customer loan book grew by 3.2 per cent in the quarter and 17.3 per cent annually.

The company said that lending in real estate finance grew by 4.3 per cent as the pipeline for Q4 2022 converted to new business.

Secure Trust Bank said that commercial finance balance fell slightly in the period, but vehicle finance and retain finance lending fell by 7.3 per cent and 3.5 per cent compared to the prior quarter.

A strong start to the year

David McCreadie, Secure Trust Bank’s chief executive officer, said: “The group has made a strong start to the year and is trading in line with management expectations. I am delighted that we completed the issuance of £90m of new Tier 2 capital and subsequent buy-back of our existing £50m Tier 2 capital due 2028.

“We see significant opportunity for sustainable growth in our focused market segments and are well positioned to help consumers and businesses fulfil their ambitions and to continue to grow our net lending and scale our business as we strengthen our distribution networks and relationships,” he added.

McCreadie added: “We continued to focus on delivering cost initiatives to help mitigate the impacts of inflation and expect to deliver a further improvement in the cost income ratio in 2023. Although the economic environment remains uncertain, we have started the year positively and are confident in delivering on our plans for the full year and our medium term targets.”