According to Shawbrook’s latest results, the underlying profit before tax came to £294m, which is slightly down from £302m.
The lender said this showed its “continued strategic investment in the business”, noting the profitability improved over the course of the year as return on tangible equity rose from 15% in the first half of the year to 19% in the second half of the year.
Shawbrook’s deposit book has increased by 16% year-on-year to £15.8bn, a rise from £13.6bn. This shows a strengthening of its funding base and backs the firm’s “ability to deliver exceptional customer experience at scale”.
The firm reiterated that it had launched a “unified commercial and retail franchise structure” led by chief banking officers for a “sharper customer focus”.
The bank also acquired JBR Auto Holdings so it can expand into high-end motor finance.
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Marcelino Castrillo, Shawbrook’s CEO, commented: “In 2024, we continued to invest in technology, talent and our proven specialist proposition. This commitment to our strategy, combined with our ability to execute quickly and at scale, gave us the platform to continue to grow our business throughout the year and to take that momentum into 2025.
“Underpinning our strategy is our ‘best of both’ model, which combines exceptional talent and deep market expertise with a scalable and adaptive technology infrastructure. This combination ensures we remain lean, focused and agile as an organisation, whilst also creating the capacity we need to meet growing customer demand.”
He noted that the “diversification of our customer propositions across a range of carefully selected markets is a key differentiator, giving us the ability to direct capital efficiently to optimise growth and returns”.
Castrillo said its SME market expertise and “strength and scale [of] our specialist mortgage business” meant it had a “large and specific total addressable market of c.£290bn”.
He said the firm has “continued to grow, our business has remained resilient, with cost of risk for the year reducing to 47bps”.
“This is underpinned by our prudent approach to underwriting and proactive portfolio monitoring capabilities, with proprietary digital solutions giving us the visibility needed to make agile, data-driven decisions.
“Despite substantial investment in digital and data to strengthen our customer propositions and drive long-term growth, we continue to benefit from a cost-efficient model, with an underlying cost to income ratio of 40.8%. Excluding the full year cost base acquired with JBR, total costs in H2 2024 reduced compared to H1 2024, highlighting our continued focus on careful cost management,” Castrillo added.
He said there was “significant potential for organic growth” across its markets and it was “well-positioned to pursue attractive inorganic opportunities as they arise”.
“Our clear strategic focus and the capabilities we have built, combined with our innovative mindset and agility, give us multiple avenues to create further long-term value for the benefit of our customers, colleagues and shareholder in 2025 and beyond,” Castrillo concluded.
