Britain's fourth biggest bank, HBOS, is on track to deliver 7% earnings growth this year after a robust start to the year and a recovery in its share of mortgage lending, according to a statement released this morning.
The bank owns Bank of Scotland (Ireland) here.
HBOS, the UK's biggest mortgage provider, said its current trading and financial performance 'remains robust' and it was comfortable with analysts' forecasts that 2006 underlying pre-tax profit would rise to £5.2 billion from £4.84 billion a year ago.
The bank said its share of net mortage lending was running at a similar rate to the first half of 2005, when it was 17%.
