By Kristy Dorsey
Private bank Hampden & Co has finished its fourth year in business with double-digit increases in income and lending and a further reduction in pre-tax losses.
Headquartered in Edinburgh with offices in London, Hampden & Co posted a 54% increase in lending to £203 million in 2019, helped in large part by December’s acquisition of a £31m loan book from Smith & Williamson. The loan book was sold after Smith & Williamson decided to give up its banking license as part of its acquisition by Tilney.
Income for the year was 36% higher at £8.7m, fuelled in part by Hampden & Co’s expansion into the mortgage intermediary market. At the pre-tax level, losses fell to £5.5m from £5.8m the previous year.
READ MORE: Hampden & Co inherits £35m loan book from Smith & Williamson
Chief executive Graeme Hartop said the bank got off to a strong start in 2020, during which time Simon Miller was appointed to take over as chairman from Alex Hammond-Chambers, who has been holding the post on an interim basis since October.
However, as the coronavirus pandemic has taken hold, the focus has turned to helping the firm’s professional and high-net-worth clients cope with the resulting economic fallout. In particular, Hampden & Co has been supporting clients in the areas of liquidity and loan refinancing.
Mr Hartop added that the bank has also seen an increase in new clients who are migrating their accounts and loans from elsewhere.
READ MORE: Private bank results are due to personal service
“Like many businesses and individuals across the UK we face challenging times in the face of the current health crisis,” he said. “However, we feel fortunate to have experienced bankers who have been through previous economic crises who are able to help their clients through the current issues they face.”
The first half of 2019 saw the roll-out of a new digital banking service, which includes a mobile app, while the bank also continued to hire actively throughout the year. This included the appointment of chief commercial officer Andrew Bell, who joined Hampden & Co from Aegon Asset Management in September.
The bank raised £9.8m from existing shareholders in April of last year, and has plans to raise a similar amount of capital in 2020.
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