Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank owner CYBG, which is buying Newcastle-based Virgin Money for roughly £1.7 billion, said on Monday its third-quarter trading was in line with its expectations but warned that the mortgage market remained extremely competitive.
In a third-quarter trading update, CYBG reported year-to-date mortgage growth of 3.8% to £24.2 billion.
But the bank said: “The mortgage market remains extremely competitive with continued front book pricing pressure.”
Depostis showed year-to-date growth of 4.5% to £28.6 billion.
CYBG said its net interest margin (NIM) was maintained at 218 basis points in the nine months to June 30 and it stuck to its NIM target of 220 basis points for the year.
CYBG CEO David Duffy said: “We have delivered another solid performance this quarter, achieving sustainable lending and deposit growth in a highly competitive market while maintaining a stable net interest margin and delivering further cost and process efficiencies in the business.
“We remain on track to deliver our guidance for FY18.
“Our position as one of the UK’s leading digital banks continues to strengthen: in May we launched our fully API-enabled account aggregation for customers and this month we announced a new innovative partnership with PayPal underlining our ability to work with tech players large and small to deliver new and convenient services for customers.
“The economic and political environment in the UK remains uncertain, but we remain focused on delivering our strategic objectives and capturing further growth opportunities.
“This includes the RBS Alternative Remedies Scheme where we plan to play a significant role following confirmation of the scheme timetable.
“We continue to expect our recommended all-share offer for Virgin Money to complete in calendar Q4 2018, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, creating the UK’s first true national competitor to the status quo.”