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Paragon Banking says 21% of loan balances on deferrals

By Frank Prenesti

Date: Friday 31 Jul 2020

(Sharecast News) - Mortgage lender Paragon Banking said reported payment deferrals on 21% of its loan balances during the coronavirus crisis.
The company on Friday said that 75% of those on deferred payments had not asked for more support.

"However, the position remains a dynamic one with customers having the option to request a payment deferral up until the end of October,' Paragon Banking said in a trading update for the nine months to June 30.

It added that the range of economic scenarios disclosed at the half year "remain appropriate and therefore no additional overlays had been required for provisioning during the third quarter". Guidance for the full year was withheld.

"The group has not experienced any significant credit losses or made any material specific provisions during the quarter," it added.

Advances in the financial year to date, including mortgage advances and commercial advances, were down 13% to £1.65bn.

New activity in Paragon's commercial lending division had also seen improvements in recent weeks, with growth seen in development finance and a stable position in SME lending. The group achieved accreditation for the Coronavirus Business Loan and Bounce Back Loan schemes last month and had advanced £7.6m by the end of the first month.

Strong rates of customer retention combined with improving new business flows resulted in the group's net loan book increasing to £12.6bn, up 5.1% from last year and by 0.7% during the quarter.

The group's unverified common equity Tier 1 and total capital ratios remained strong at 14.6% and 16.8% respectively and added that despite the ongoing macro uncertainties as a result of Covid-19 "there are some encouraging signs of recovery in the economy and in the markets in which the group trades".

"However, it is still early in this stage of the pandemic crisis and uncertainty will remain for some time to come," Paragon said.

Brokers at Jeffries said that while considerable uncertainty remained the fact that economic overlays were unchanged was "good, as is the recovery in the pipeline and lending".

"Paragon has performed well in tight markets before, has a presence on the ground which gives it a competitive advantage and has minimal unsecured lending. We maintain our 'buy' rating."

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