YORKSHIRE Bank has unveiled an increase in pre-tax profits to £217.6m, a rise of 31.7 per cent.

Total lending was up 20.4 per cent to £5,991.7m, with the strong growth in both personal and business loans.

Stuart Grimshaw, chief executive of the Yorkshire Bank, part of the National Australia Bank Group, said: "These results reflect our ability to retain existing customers and attract new ones by offering clearly differentiated products and services which capitalise on the group's global expertise."

In the highly competitive sector of personal finance, the bank achieved a 30.3 per cent growth rate in mortgage business, due in part to the introduction of a flexible repayment mortgage in the UK, following its development by the group in New Zealand.

A 12-week campaign on personal loan sales achieved record volumes of new business with loans up 66 per cent on the previous year.

Mr Grimshaw said: "Yorkshire Bank has taken a positive stance in favour of its customers, launching a new card-based product which provides low-cost access to the banking system and carefully assessing its role in the community where the bank is the sole provider of services."

Yorkshire Bank has expanded the number of ways the customer can access the bank's services.

During the year, it became one of the first banks in the world to offer access to a new generation of ATMs with an increased range of features, including the potential for Internet access.

The bank intends to introduce full Internet banking within the next year