Nationwide boosts mortgage lending and expands into SMEs
BUILDING society Nationwide recorded a 10 per cent rise in profits to £304m during the year to April 2012 as it ramped up mortgage lending and retreated from commercial real estate.
The mutual also said yesterday that it is planning to diversify into small business (SME) lending and will over time “develop and offer a full range of services to SMEs”.
Nationwide is keen to expand into the space left by larger players that are deleveraging. Its gross mortgage lending grew by 44 per cent to £18.4bn in part by buying £1.2bn’s worth of housing assets.
It wants to grow its retail business in part to make up for shrinking its portfolio of commercial property assets, which total £11.2bn. It also took a £103m charge to compensate customers for mis-sold insurance products.