University’s bank soars into profit

A BANK set up to challenge the dominance of the high street retail banks by offering loans to local businesses is booming.

Cambridge & Counties Bank – owned by Cambridge University’s Trinity Hall and the Cambridgeshire Local Government Pension Fund – lent businesses £200million in the year to June 2014, up from £40million in the previous year.

Its deposits soared from £63million to £200million in the same period.

The bank reported a profit before tax of more than £1million in the first half of 2014 against a loss of £700,000 for the same period last year.

The bank predicts that its profit performance will accelerate and it expects profit in the second half of 2014 to more than double.

Gary Wilkinson, chief executive at Cambridge & Counties Bank, said: ‘To see a million-pound profit in a sixmonth period ending just two years after launch is a great achievement. It shows that a new bank can compete with and provide an alternative to the mainstream banks.’