British bank Abbey National turned in a weak quarterly performance today at its personal financial services unit which sent its shares five per cent lower.
Chief executive Mr Luqman Arnold warned sales at the division, which covers banking and savings, would remain weak into next year. But he added Britain's second-biggest home loans firm was on track for a rebound in revenue by this time next year.
Abbey said the unit's trading profits fell 15 per cent in the third quarter compared with the average quarterly performance in the first half. That works out as a third-quarter trading profit of about £250 million pounds (€420 million).
Most of the personal financial services revenue decline was at the Treasury business, which trades in securities and currencies and had a particularly strong first half, chief operating officer Mr Stephen Hester said.
Income was also hit by a cut in its standard mortgage rate, made to bring it into line with rivals.
Net mortgage lending rose 55 per cent from a year earlier to £6.5 billion, giving the bank a 9.4 per cent market share.