OneSavings lifts profit, grows loan book in 2015

OneSavings Bank lifted its profits and grew its loan book in 2015, it reported in its preliminary results on Thursday. Underlying profit before tax was up 52% to £105.9m, and loans and advances grew 31% to £5.1bn.

The FTSE 250 firm's cost to income ratio was further reduced during the calendar year, to 26% from 28%, which the board put down to strong income growth and a focus on cost control and efficiency.

Underlying return on equity increased to 32% from 31%, and underlying basic earnings per share were up 43% to 34.8p from 24.4p. Its fully-loaded Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio also strengthened, to 11.6% from 11.4%.

"I am delighted to report another year of very strong performance in 2015, delivering on all our financial objectives," said OneSavings Bank CEO Andy Golding.

"We have continued to grow the loan book through our specialist lending brands and improved both our net interest margin and cost to income ratio," he added.

Golding said the growth had been achieved at the same time as the bank strengthened its capital ratio, which demonstrated strong organic capital generation capability through profitability.

He was particularly pleased with the innovation shown by the InterBay brand in the buy-to-let and SME segment, as well as the increase in the range and volume of funding lines and the growth in Heritable Development Finance.

"Looking forward we remain cognisant of the political and regulatory headwinds in buy-to-let and in 2016 we have amended our lending criteria to cement our focus on the professional landlords that we believe will continue to develop their buy-to-let portfolios," Golding said, adding that remained in line with its expectation that the private rented sector would continue to be a vital component of the UK housing market.

"We have entered 2016 with our strongest ever pipeline, and application and completion volumes are showing sustained growth. We look forward with confidence".

OneSavings' board declared a final dividend of 6.7p per share, taking the full year dividend to 8.7p per share.