TSB's Spanish owner pledges long-term commitment to UK
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TSB chief executive Paul Pester said that its parent Sabadell was “absolutely not” concerned about the UK business following the Brexit vote.
“Sabadell’s investment in TSB, and actually the UK, is a long-term commitment to the UK and to the UK banking market,” he said.
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Hide AdTSB was spun out from Lloyds Banking Group three years ago and then taken over by Spanish rival Banco de Sabadell last March.
Pester said: “The real benefits of the acquisition of TSB will flow through, for instance, from our continuing growth.”
He highlighted that the bank’s ability to clock a 95 per cent rise in pre-tax management profit to £149 million in the nine months to September “is obviously great news for Sabadell”.
“So no wavering at all in the commitments from Sabadell to TSB and to the UK economy,” Pester said.
TSB said that confidence managed to bounce back quickly after the EU referendum, after customers briefly “paused for thought,” cancelling mortgage and loan positions in the wake of the vote.
However, that dip in demand lasted just a matter of days, Pester explained, with the bank’s appointment book returning to normal a week later, followed by a significant increase in customers looking to remortgage their homes.
Pester said: “Looking forward, these are, of course, uncertain times. And, whilst we saw customers pause for thought following the EU referendum, confidence quickly returned with customers continuing to choose TSB.”
The bank said total lending to customers rose to £28.6m, up 8.5 per cent from the end of December, while customer deposits reached £29 billion, up nearly 12 per cent.
That helped statutory pre-tax profits rise to £161.6m – up 229 per cent from £49.1m during the same period last year.