Mortgage demand drives Aldermore

'‹'‹Challenger bank'‹ Aldermore Group reported a better'‹ '‹than'‹ '‹expected increase in full'‹ '‹year pre'‹-'‹tax profit '‹following an increase in mortgages and loans to small and medium-sized businesses.

By The Newsroom

Published 10th Mar 2016, 08:54 BST

Updated 10th Mar 2016, 09:01 BST

Challenger banks are thriving amid customer dissatisfaction with traditional lenders following a series of banking scandals.

Aldermore said it had not yet seen a "significant" shift in customer behaviour because of Britain's increase in property tax, expected to come into effect in April, for those who buy a house in order to rent it and on second homes.

The bank, founded in 2009 by a former Barclays executive with backing from AnaCap, said pre-tax profit rose 88 per cent to £95m for the year to December 31.

Analysts were expecting the company to earn £91.4m.

Aldermore, which went public last March, said net lending to customers rose 28 per cent to £6.1bn in the year.

Aldermore's shares were trading up 6.4 per cent to 230p this morning, outperforming the FTSE 350 Banks Index.

Britain Barclays