Arbuthnot Banking full-year profit jumps on surge in lending

March 19 (Reuters) - Britain's Arbuthnot Banking Group said its full-year pretax profit jumped 43 percent aslending surged.

Arbuthnot, which has its roots in 181-year-old private bankand wealth manager Arbuthnot Latham, said net interest incomerose to 98.3 million pounds ($146.16 million) in year ended Dec.31, from 73 million pounds a year earlier.

Pretax profit increased to 22.5 million pounds from 15.7million pounds.

The bank said it would pay a total dividend of 27 pencecompared with 44 pence, which included an 18 pence specialdividend a year earlier.

Arbuthnot Banking comprises private banking unit ArbuthnotLatham & Co Limited and retail banking division Secure TrustBank Plc.

($1 = 0.6725 pounds) (Reporting by Aashika Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by AnupamaDwivedi)