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(Alliance News) - Paragon Banking Group PLC on Tuesday reported a record earnings performance in its annual results, helped by strong lending and margin growth.
The provider of mortgages and commercial and personal loans posted a pretax profit of GBP213.7 million for the financial year ended September 30, surging from GBP118.4 million the previous year.
Operating income for the bank was GBP324.9 million, up 10% from GBP295.1 million the year before.
Chief Executive Nigel Terrington said: "We have delivered an outstanding performance in 2021, which is testament to the strength of our operating model, the quality of our customer base and the capability and adaptability of our people. Every lending business in the group has this year made excellent progress, and at over GBP2.6 billion, aggregate new lending now comfortably exceeds pre-pandemic levels."
Separately, the West Midlands-based lender announced a share buyback of up to GBP50 million for 2022, in addition to the remaining GBP2.2 million from the 2021 buyback.
Looking ahead, Terrington struck an upbeat tone on future opportunities: "We enter 2022 with strong pipelines at near record levels, improved margins and the capital to continue to invest in and grow our business, as well as deliver additional returns for shareholders via a new buyback programme and materially increasing our full year dividend. We remain confident in our outlook and are on track with our plans to become the UK's leading technology-enabled specialist bank."
Paragon declared a full year dividend of 26.1 pence, up from 14.4p in 2020.
Shares were flat at 539.00 pence in London on Tuesday, lagging the wider FTSE 250 index which was up 1.0%.
By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com
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