OakNorth celebrates near-doubling of profits in 2019, as growth halves

The bank posts solid figures after a time of “unprecedented uncertainty”.

Alternative lender OakNorth Bank this morning revealed a 95 per cent uptick in its pre-tax profits for 2019, to £65.9m.

The record was only dampened by a sharp slowdown in OakNorth’s growth of its total loan facilities to £3.1bn, a 42 per cent jump compared to a nearly 150 per cent jump the previous year.

OakNorth’s Chairman Cyrus Ardalan said the business had operated through a time of “unprecedented uncertainty” in the British economy, pointing to “the combination of Brexit, the general election, and flooding across huge stretches of Northern England in the final quarter of the year”.

The results, which do not include OakNorth’s technology licensing arm, include a cumulative lending to-date of over £4bn since the bank launched in September 2015.

“While I am humbled to see what we have accomplished in our first four years, this is only the beginning. I am excited to demonstrate the power of our Platform and continue to work with our partner banks around the world to enable businesses and economies to thrive,” said CEO and co-founder Rishi Khosla.

Along with its results, OakNorth also announced that it has become one of the first banks globally to reach net carbon zero for direct emissions and IT infrastructure.

The bank is now working on reducing its indirect emissions via clients, a policy which will be formalised this year.