The Co-operative Bank posted new mortgage applications of £2.6bn in the first six months of the year, beating the total for the whole of last year.   

The lender’s new home loans came in at £2.3bn in 2023, adding that its mortgage pipeline this year is currently around £1.1bn in a financial statement. 

It put its jump in applications down to improving its mortgage lending criteria, increasing loan-to-value ratios for different products and “optimising repayment strategies for interest-only mortgage products”.   

It also halved the average time to issue a mortgage offer from over 29 days to 15 days, although the firm said it had suffered “mortgage margin pressure”.   

Co-operative Bank chief executive Nick Slape said: “Mortgage new business applications in the first six months of the year were more than double those in the same period last year.”   

However, it reported a pre-tax profit of £24.2m for the first six months of the year, less than half of the £61.8m profit it generated a year ago. 

Major lenders have seen profits cut back this year from sizeable returns seen over the past two years, as the base rate has stabilised and competition in the mortgage and savings market increases.   

In May, Coventry Building Society agreed to buy the Co-operative Bank for £780m in cash.     

The building society said it will integrate the bank “gradually over several years”.    

It added: “During this period, the society and the bank will continue to operate under their current names and branding while the work required to provide more integrated services in the future is carried out.”