HAMPDEN & Co, the Edinburgh-based private bank, has said its tailored solutions have helped companies through coronavirus as it reported continued strong growth in lending and deposits in the first half of 2020.

The bank said despite the headwinds of Covid-19, the lockdown and the reduction of UK base rates to historic lows, it grew its deposits by £82 million, up 24 per cent against June 30, 2019 - and lending by £94m, up 61% on last year, and continues to build its client base.

The performance brought income growth of 16%, or £4.8m, compared to the same period the year before.

The first half of 2020 saw the bank transition rapidly to remote working during Covid-19 lockdown, remaining fully open for business and maintaining a focus on high levels of client service while supporting a range of clients by providing liquidity and refinancing loans it said.

Graeme Hartop, Hampden chief executive, said the figures also pointed towards a positive second half.

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He said: “What we are seeing is that our clients and prospective clients really like the personal relationship-driven approach that we deliver.

“In essence we have won a lot of new business on the back of that. Our new business numbers in the first half of the year were very strong indeed given what has been going on and that is really a reflection of the service that we give and the relationship approach that we have.

“That has continued in to the second half as well so we’ve seen a very strong start to the second half of the year too.

He added: “Essentially what we’ve seen is there are a lot of people out there who have some complex situations to deal with and quite a lot of banks are not able to handle that in the very bespoke way that we look at it, so that has meant that there has been a lot of people coming to us because we have very experienced bankers looking at these situations and in a large number of these cases we’ve been able to look and find solutions.”

The bank completed a £7m capital raise in line with its capital plan, Simon Miller took over from Alex Hammond-Chambers as chairman at the AGM in May, and the banking and management teams in Edinburgh and London were further strengthened by a series of appointments.

A dedicated business unit supporting mortgage intermediaries in the high net worth sector was launched during the first half and the bank is set to expand its range of mortgage services later this month, it said.

The second part of the planned 2020 capital raise will take place in the fourth quarter to support balance sheet growth, Hampden & Co added.