Online bank Egg says it has moved into profit for the first time in the fourth quarter of this year, meeting a target set when the bank floated in June 2000.
Egg, which made a loss in the third quarter of £18.4 million sterling, said today its accounts for November showed it had made a profit for the month.
The company, Europe's largest pure Internet bank, was floated in June 2000 by Prudential, the British insurer, which still holds about 80 per cent of the company.
The bank has wooed customers with attractive interest rates on credit cards and savings. It said it had signed up 129,300 customers so far in the fourth quarter.
Customer acquisition had slowed down in the third quarter, when Egg signed up 83,000 net new customers against 146,000 in the second quarter.
Egg said this brought its total customer base to 1.92 million people as of December 10th, an increase of 569,000 net so far this year. Last year Egg added 559,000 new customers.
The bank said its credit cards would be a key driver of sustainable profits in future and they had been making a positive contribution since October 1st.