The Co-operative Bank has released a third-quarter trading update, revealing a “resilient performance in a challenging environment.”
The lender posted a pre-tax loss of £23.5m, which was a sharp improvement from the £80.1m for the same period a year ago.
Whilst losses improved, the Co-op bank is still deep in the red amid the pandemic.
In the nine months to the end of September, the group posted losses of £68.1m, compared to the losses of £118.6m in the same period a year earlier.
Nick Slape, Chief Executive Officer of the Co-op Bank, said, “I’m proud to become CEO of such a stand-out banking brand and to be leading the organisation at a time when we have an important role to play in supporting our customers and our communities.
“This is a challenging time for all banks, given the uncertain economic outlook and continuing low base rate, but whilst we remain loss making as anticipated in our plan, the results also show our resilience as we continue to make significant progress in our turnaround.
“These are difficult times for many people around the country and supporting our long-standing charity partners in the work they do is vital. We are very proud of the initiatives we’re involved in to tackle youth homelessness, to raise awareness of economic abuse and to support co-operative businesses across the UK. As the backdrop remains difficult in the months ahead, we are committed to playing our part and doing as much as we can to make a difference to the communities around us.
“As we face into this new phase of the pandemic, I would like to thank our colleagues for their commitment in supporting our customers, and to reassure all our customers of our support at this uncertain time.”
The bank saw an increase in mortgages for the third quarter, which was helped by Rishi Sunak’s stamp-duty holiday. The bank lent £530m in mortgages over the last quarter.