Charter Court loan book up 28pc in first quarter

Charter Court Financial Services Group updated the market on its trading in the first quarter on Tuesday, claiming that it had maintained a “strong” balance sheet during the period, with its loan book up 28.2% year-on-year to £5.5bn.

The FTSE 250 company said new loan originations reached £668.2m during the quarter, with a strong performance seen in its core segments of buy-to-let and specialist residential.

It said it maintained “strong” asset quality and credit performance in the quarter, through the continued execution of is “dynamic” funding strategy.

The company’s funding mix in the quarter was said to have been further optimised to reduce overall funding spreads, while maintaining a prudent funding profile.

It executed two securitisations totalling £620.6m in the period, up from £597.3m at the same time last year, achieving the tightest spreads for the PMF series to date.

Customer deposits totalled £4.3bn at 31 March, up from £3.7bn year-on-year.

Charter Court made its final draw down from the Bank of England Term Funding Scheme during the quarter, which closed at the end of February.

Its total TFS drawings at the end of the quarter stood at £1.1bn.

The company also made the structured sale of £277m of CMF 2017-1 securitised mortgage assets, resulting in a gain on sale of £15m, which was recognised in the quarter.

Charter Court’s board said the firm remained “well-capitalised” for future growth, with an unaudited CET1 ratio of 16.0%.

“I am pleased to report another strong quarter for Charter Court,” said CEO Ian Lonergan.

“We have successfully maintained the strong momentum in our mortgage originations pipeline at year end 2017 into the first quarter of 2018, while taking the opportunity to price up our mortgage products in response to higher swap rates.”

Lonergan said that, in line with its strategy, the company continued to work “just as hard” on the liability side of its balance sheet, taking advantage of favourable capital markets conditions to successfully execute two securitisations in the quarter totalling £620.6m.

“Looking ahead, we continue to see strong demand for our buy-to-let and specialist residential mortgages and remain confident in our stated financial targets.”