Belmont Green losses narrow to £5.8m in 2020

Despite this loss, chief executive Anth Mooney insists the specialist lender is “on track” to breakeven and deliver its first year of profit in 2021.

Over the 12 months to 31 December 2020, the firm’s net interest income increased to £23.9m from £2.5m the year before.

Net interest margin also improved by 29 basis points to 1.44% due to higher mortgage yields and lower weighted average cost of funds.

At the same time, Mooney – who joined in January 2020 – oversaw an efficiency programme which created £3.1m in annualised savings. As a result, administration expenses were reduced to £28m in 2020.

The lender also invested in a new treasury management and asset and liability management platform to improve grade control and risk management functionality, and John Rowan was hired in October 2020 as chief financial officer.

Reflecting the macroeconomic risk from Covid-19, Belmont Green also raised impairment provisions to £3.4m (from £2.4m in 2019).

Mooney said the organisation would continue to work towards its goal of becoming authorised as a bank by the PRA.

“This will significantly improve our resilience and durability as an organisation, diversifying our sources of funding, reducing our reliance on wholesale markets and laying the foundations for a scale specialist mortgage bank,” he said.

“This, together with our investments in systems and people, and significantly improved service capability, will help us achieve break-even profitability for the first time this year, and I am pleased to report that we are well on track to deliver this important milestone.”