By Lawrence White
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Nationwide Building Society reported on Thursday a 46% rise in income for the first half of its financial year, as it increased lending and deposits while integrating Virgin Money, which it took over last year.
The member-owned lender, which competes with Britain’s big banks but does not like them prioritise shareholder returns, reported total underlying income of 3.1 billion pounds ($4.1 billion) for the six months to September 30, up from 2.1 billion pounds in the same period last year, as it adds the smaller lender’s mortgage and retail banking business.
Nationwide’s statutory profit before tax fell to 486 million pounds from 568 million the year before after it paid out 400 million pounds to members in May via its fairer share payment.
Instead of profit, Nationwide focuses on how much it pays out to its customers in beneficial rates and direct cash handouts, a measure known as member value that slipped slightly to 1.2 billion pounds from 1.3 billion in 2024.
The strong performance from Britain’s second-biggest mortgage lender followed a similarly upbeat earnings season for rival listed banks such as NatWest, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays, as banks shrugged off concerns about Britain’s sluggish economic growth to book bumper profits from robust lending and low customer default levels.
($1 = 0.7657 pounds)
(Reporting by Lawrence White. Editing by Mark Potter)
