The Co-Operative Bank has revealed that new mortgage lending has reached £530 million during the third quarter of 2020.
The bank also announced that net residential lending had hit £242 million whilst net SME lending was at £225 million and Bounce Back loans and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) were reported to have reached £84 million.
They have provided 20,000 payment deferrals across mortgages, loans and credit cards in order to support customers who were struggling financially as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the positive new mortgage lending figure for Q3, the Co-Operative Bank’s loss before tax was £68.1 million. Its capital position was reinforced with a strong CET1 ratio, improving to 19.1%.
The news comes as the bank is on course for a better year than in 2019, however it still remains deep in the red. Despite the pandemic and the financial implications it has resulted in, the bank’s statutory loss before tax in Q3 was £23.5 million, down sharply from a £80.1 million loss reported for the same period in 2019.
Chief Executive of Co-Op Bank, Nick Slape, said: “This is a challenging time for all banks, given the uncertain economic outlook and continuing low base rate, but whilst we remain loss making as anticipated in our plan, the results also show our resilience as we continue to make significant progress in our turnaround.
“Our strong CET1 ratio, low-risk credit book and successful milestones delivered in IT and digital transformation mean we are navigating this unprecedented environment robustly.
“This enables us to focus on providing the support our customers need, and we are pleased to have been able to provide over 8,000 loans to small business customers at this critical time through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).”
Slape took over as Chief Executive at the bank last month, making him their sixth boss in nine years and he inherited a bank that was already loss-making heading into the coronavirus pandemic and has been forced to cut 350 jobs and close 18 branches.
As England now finds itself in a second month-long lockdown, lenders across the country are bracing themselves for impact. Many lenders across England however, remain somewhat optimistic after the first wave of Coronavirus lockdowns did not wreak the level of economic havoc as was expected with elements such as house prices not falling drastically and bad debts not mounting to the levels initially anticipated.
