Shawbrook Bank has posted an underlying second year profit of £2.6m.

The lender has just published its annual report and accounts for the year ending 31st December 2012 which show it broke even in May 2012 after 16 months of trading. It went on to secure profit for each subsequent month of the year, resulting in an underlying profit of £2.6m for the year end, 2012.

March 2012 saw Shawbrook acquire Singers Asset Finance, now Shawbrook Asset Finance. The costs associated with this acquisition, alongside significant investment in infrastructure to support future growth, led to a reduction in the underlying profitability of £2.6m to an accounting loss before tax of £7.8m.

Asset finance grew by 7% to £348m, while commercial lending grew by 437% to £201m.

Shawbook’s secured lending rose to £163m, up 267%, while consumer lending grew from a standing start to £29m.

It has a depositor base of over 22,000 personal and small business accounts with an average deposit in excess of £41,000.

Ian Henderson, chief executive of Shawbrook Bank, said: “Shawbrook has demonstrated the strength of its business model in the last 12 months. We’re proud to have increased our lending so significantly and to have shown a continual improvement in profitability as the business has grown.

“These positive results are just the beginning for us. When we launched Shawbrook we knew there was a desire in the market for a new kind of bank, offering common sense decision-making and fast, efficient systems. Our results reflect the significant demand that we have experienced from credit worthy SMEs and individual customers. After exceeding our targets in 2012, we are aiming to continue this trend with a significant increase in our lending to businesses and consumers in 2013.

“Our focus remains on ensuring that growth is delivered in a controlled manner, evidenced by the prudent way in which credit, capital and liquidity are managed. Significant investment across the business has helped to support our rapid growth and these results go some way toward showing the impact we have made in the market. This demonstrates excellent progress for such a new bank in the market, and will pave the way for what will be a hugely successful 2013.”