Bradford-based lender, Vanquis Bank, says its profitable growth continued in the first half, with strong credit quality performance and its technology transformation remaining on track.
Publishing its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2026, the business reported a 44 per cent increase in statutory profit before tax from continuing operations of £8.9m (1 H25: £6.2m) and total income of £237.5m (1 H25: £219.7m).
Gross customer interest-earning balances increased eight per cent to £3,054m in the six months to June 2026, with growth driven by Second Charge Mortgages and Credit Cards.
Ian McLaughlin, chief executive officer, said: “Vanquis made further significant progress in the first half of 2026, delivering profitable balance growth of eight per cent, while maintaining credit quality through disciplined underwriting, reflecting the continued financial resilience of our customers.
“Profit before tax increased 44 per cent, exceeding our profit for all of 2025, despite absorbing a significant increase in macroeconomic impairment provision.
“Our transformation reached another important milestone. We successfully migrated all Credit Card customers to our new, award-winning, mobile app. This provides a stronger platform for customer engagement, improved operational efficiency and future scalability.
“We continue to invest in a disciplined way, driving further automation and the expanded use of AI. We now expect to deliver approximately £30m to £35m of transformation cost savings, ahead of our previous guidance of £23m to £28m.”
Vanquis adds that while new lending volumes remained resilient overall, with particularly strong growth in Second Charge Mortgages, an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop resulted in more cautious consumer behaviour leading to lower than expected spending and utilisation from existing Credit Card customers.
This meant a greater than expected proportion of its growth came from new customer acquisition, which reduced asset yields in the near term.
The lender says it is assuming this spending caution will persist, so it intends to continue to drive greater volume of high quality balance growth through new customer acquisition.
It notes this will moderate returns in 2026 and 2027, but positions the group for stronger profitability beyond the near-term impact.
