Secure Trust Bank PLC Preliminary Results for the 12 months to 31 December 2024

Solid growth and improved cost to income ratio

Tangible book value per share increased to £18.64

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Secure Trust Bank PLC (‘STB’ or the ‘Group’), a leading specialist lender, is pleased to announce its financial results for the 12 months to 31 December 2024.

Commenting, David McCreadie, Chief Executive, said:

“Secure Trust Bank has remained focused on its medium-term targets and strategic priorities, delivering on balance sheet growth, stabilising net interest margin, and delivering cost efficiencies. The business has delivered an 18.0% increase in its adjusted¹ profit before tax pre impairments. We have continued to grow our loan book towards our £4 billion target, at which point we expect to deliver an adjusted¹ return on average equity of 14-16%. We remain confident in achieving our medium-term targets which we will have largely delivered by the end of 2025.”

Financial Highlights²

Secure Trust Bank PLC (‘Secure Trust Bank’, ‘STB’ or the ‘Group’) achieved net lending growth of 8.8% (£293.2 million), primarily driven by the Consumer Finance business, which grew by 13.4% (£225.7 million). Business Finance saw growth of 4.2% (£67.5 million), which was driven by the Real Estate Finance business with growth of £97.6 million combined with a small year-on-year reduction in Commercial Finance, which continued to be impacted by a subdued market. This resulted in a stable NIM of 5.4% (2023: 5.4%), reflecting improvement in the second half of the year (H2 2024: 5.5%; H1 2024: 5.3%).

Customer deposits reached a record level of £3.2 billion (2023: £2.9 billion) through a combination of growth in Access accounts and ISAs. This increase alongside the use of ILTR funding enabled us to repay £160.0 million of TFSME funding in 2024 ahead of maturity. A further £60.0 million of TFSME funding was repaid by the end of February 2025, leaving £170.0 million outstanding.

Project Fusion, the Group’s cost optimisation programme, continued to contribute to our adjusted¹ cost income ratio which improved from 54.0% in 2023 to 50.9%, limiting cost growth to 4.1%. Adjusted¹ cost income ratio was 48.4% for H2 2024, reflecting the ongoing growth of the loan book and tight cost control.

The impairment charge of £61.9 million (2023: £43.2 million) was significantly impacted by the pause in our collection processes in Vehicle Finance during the second half of 2023 following the FCA’s Borrowers in Financial Difficulty (‘BiFD’) review.

On an adjusted¹ basis the Group achieved a profit before tax of £39.1 million (2023: £42.6 million), a decrease of 8.2%. Total profit before tax of £29.2 million (2023: £33.4 million) was impacted by exceptional items (£9.9 million) in 2024 (2023: £6.5 million). The Group achieved an adjusted¹ return on average equity (‘ROAE’) of 8.0% (2023: 9.6%) and a common equity tier 1 ratio of 12.3% (2024: 12.7%).

Capital ratios have reduced in the period by 0.4 percentage points due to the exceptional items impact of 0.3 percentage points and capital generated being utilised to support growth in Risk Weighted Assets (‘RWAs’) and dividends.

Dividend

The Directors are proposing a final dividend of 22.5 pence per share for 2024, which will be payable on 22 May 2025 to shareholders on the register at the close of business on 25 April 2025. The total dividend payable for 2024 is 33.8 pence per share (2023: 32.2 pence per share). This is in line with the Board’s decision to move to a progressive dividend policy for the 2024 financial year, reflecting feedback from shareholders. The total dividend pence per share represents a 5% increase against prior year.

Contacts

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