Wednesday 11 May 2016 5:06 pm

Confident challenger OneSavings Bank reveals net loans and advances growth

OneSavings Bank revealed today that its net loans and advances had grown in a trading statement ahead of its AGM, with its chief executive noting that the challenger bank remained "confident" for the year ahead.

The bank, which launched in 2011, reported that net loans and advances grew by £460m in its first quarter of the year, which was mainly driven by organic sources with a little bit of help of acquisitions worth £131m.

The bank has stated that, despite the introduction of the eight per cent bank tax surcharge at the start of the year, it had had a strong return on equity during the first quarter and it believed it could deliver a return ahead of its target by comfortable distance.

"As expected, March was a record month as we fulfilled heightened demand to accelerate mortgage completions ahead of stamp duty changes," said Andy Golding, chief executive of OneSavings Bank. "Intermediary focus has now returned to new applications and we are confident in achieving our full year growth targets.

"We remain confident in the outlook for 2016."

At the challenger bank's AGM, 94.4 per cent voted to approve the remuneration report and, by extension, Golding's £848,000 paypacket for the year. This was up on £777,000 from the year before.

At time of writing, shares in the company, which has been part of the FTSE 250 since June 2015, were trading down 3.7 per cent at 273.5p.