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LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest customer-ownedlender Nationwide said its profits jumped by more than a quarterin its latest six months, driven by record mortgage lending andmore than a quarter of a million new current account customers.
Nationwide said on Friday its gross mortgagelending rose 14 percent to 14.9 billion pounds ($22.8 billion)in the six months ended September, representing 13.2 percent ofthe UK market, and its net lending rose to 4.1 billion pounds.
Nationwide is Britain's second-largest mortgage and savingsprovider and said it also performed well in savings and currentaccounts, taking market share.
Chief Executive Graham Beale said he was optimistic thelender would take further advantage of major changes acrossBritain's banks, which have to separate their domestic retailbanking operations from riskier areas such as investment bankingfrom the start of 2019.
Nationwide is not affected by the new rules, but its sixmajor banking rivals are, including Barclays and HSBC.
"They have got a massive distraction. It's a hugecomplicated undertaking and for the big banks it's going to becosting them in the billions to exercise this change," Bealesaid.
"These are big undertakings and it's inevitable they willtake their eye off the ball ... so we're in a good place."
Nationwide said its underlying profit for the six monthsrose to 801 million pounds, up 27 percent from the same period ayear earlier.
Beale said the UK housing market was "healthy and strong"and he expected house price inflation to continue at about 3-4percent, although there could be a cool-down in the Londonmarket.
($1 = 0.6546 pounds) (Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Mark Potter)
