Danske Bank's pre-tax profit more than doubled in first half of 2023

Danske Bank in Northern Ireland more than doubled its pre-tax profit in the first half of this year.

The bank made £110m in the first six months of 2023 compared to £44m in the same period last year.

Rising interest rates are generally good for bank profits, enabling banks to increase the "spread" between what they charge borrowers and pay to depositors.

Chief executive Vicky Davies described the financial performance as "robust".

She said that despite rising interest rates, mortgages arrears are so far extremely low and in line with those seen pre-pandemic.

"This tells us that the vast majority of our customers are managing to keep up with their payments," she added.

"However, we are being proactive, and reaching out to customers on variable rates, tracker products, interest only and those we have identified as being most likely to potentially struggle with higher payments."

She said that new mortgage business has slowed compared to previous years but that there was a pick up in the second quarter of the year compared to the first quarter.

Official data from HMRC suggest the Northern Ireland housing market has had the slowest start to the year in almost a decade.

Ms Davis said there had been a slight change in customer behaviour when it comes to choosing fixed rate deals.

In the first six months of 2023, 53% of new customers choose a two-year term while in the same period last year 67% of new fixed rate mortgage customers opted for a five-year term.

They may indicate that more recent borrowers anticipate that interest rates will have fallen when their two-year fix comes to an end.