Arbuthnot reports good progress in third quarter

Arbuthnot Banking Group said it had traded well in the third quarter with both its banks making good progress.The AIM-listed financial services group said its retail banking subsidiary Secure Trust Bank had seen strong demand for its lending and deposit products and had started to develop its plans to step into the lending market for small and medium-sized enterprises. It plans to launch an invoice financing business in the first half of 2014.It private banking business Arbuthnot Latham has seen good interest from the expatriate community in Dubai since opening an office there in July, the company said. It is also still being offered attractive loan propositions as it benefits from the bigger banks keeping a reduced appetite towards specialised lending.Shares in Arbuthnot were unchanged at 975.25p at 09:09 on Friday while shares in Secure Trust Bank which has a separate listing were down 2.3% at 2160p. TB Arbuthnot