Santander UK has delayed the release of its third-quarter results, although limited data from the Spanish bank’s group earnings report that British home loans were lower.
The international group said UK attributable profit rose 5.4% to €347m (£288m) from the previous quarter, but was down 21.5% to €975m over the last nine months from a year ago.
It added that over the last nine months “mortgage balances fell both in the UK and in Spain, still impacted by prepayments, but new business volumes are picking up”.
It pointed out that the UK lender was now seeing “lower mortgage volumes, in line with our strategy”.
The UK arm of the bank pulled its results last night as it reviewed last Friday’s landmark British court of appeal judgment into car finance misselling, related to commissions paid by banks to car dealerships.
This could cost the industry as much as could reach £16bn, potentially making it the costliest UK consumer banking scandal since the faulty sales of payment protection insurance.
The Financial Conduct Authority is also carrying out an ongoing investigation into car insurance payments.
Analysts at RBC Capital estimated Santander UK could be liable for up to £1.1bn in compensation costs paid to customers.
Santander Group said its results do not include full UK data “given that it is not possible at this time to reliably predict the financial impact, which is not expected to be material for the group’s financial position, nor is it expected to affect the achievement of the group’s financial targets for 2024.”
Overall, the group reported a quarterly profit of €3.25bn, up 12% from a year ago.
Santander’s share price was down 3% to 372p in early afternoon trading.
