Barclays said new home loan bookings rose 5% to £23.9bn last year, driven by base rate cuts and a move to boost its share of the mortgage market.
The high street bank added that Bank of England interest rate cuts “led to lower mortgage pricing and a corresponding increase in mortgage affordability and demand”.
But pointed out that its loans suffered, “mortgage margin compression” in a competitive market.
The lender said the move coincided with its “strategy to increase mortgage market share”.
Last February, Barclays laid out a three-year plan to boost growth and return £10bn to shareholders by focusing on the UK market and limiting capital used by its investment bank.
Its UK mortgage balances at £163.1bn, are largely unchanged from a year ago, 11% of which are buy-to-let loans.
The bank’s net interest margin – the difference between what it writes in loans against what it pays out to customers in interest — rose to 4.28% from 4.11% a year ago, excluding head office and investment bank activities.
Overall, Barclays’ pre-tax profit lifted 22.7% to £8.1bn in 2024 from a year ago, in a period that saw it buy Tesco Bank for £600m.
Barclays group chief executive C. S. Venkatakrishnan said: “In 2024, we met our financial targets, delivering for our customers and clients, with operational and financial performance improvement driven by disciplined execution of the three-year plan.”
Last year, the Bank of England made two quarter-point base rate reductions, and last week cut the rate again by 0.25%, bringing it to 4.5%.
The market expects between two and three further reductions from the central bank this year.
