Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank owner CYBG said on Tuesday its underlying profit rose 15% to £123 million in the six months to March 31 and that it remained on track to deliver a full-year performance in line with guidance.

However, its statutory profit before tax fell to £46 million from £58 million a year ago “after deduction of restructuring and charges for legacy conduct matters.”

Shares of CYBG fell more than 4% to around 277p to give it a current stock market value of around £2.4 billion.

CYBG said its first-half mortgage growth of 5% annualised was ahead of the market — with its mortgage balances increasing to £22.4 billion.

But CYBG’s total customer deposits fell about £667 million to £26.3 billion between the end of September and the end of March.

CYBG chief executive David Duffy said: “In the first half of this year we have maintained momentum in delivering our strategic priorities and commitments, and as a result are delivering significantly improved financial performance.

“Our half year results show improved underlying profit, good loan growth, stable margin, continued delivery of our cost programme and improved returns — all delivered in a highly competitive market and continuing low growth, low interest rate environment.

“As the only true full service challenger bank of scale across both retail and SME in the UK market, we have been able to deliver ahead of market growth in mortgages and growth in core SME banking, as well as making a strong start to our commitment to provide up to £6 billion of lending to SMEs over the next three years.”