Britain's TSB Banking Group said its pre-tax profit rose 2.3% last year after it picked up customers from established rivals and added it would consider acquisitions to accelerate its expansion.
TSB would not comment directly on speculation it could bid for British banking newcomer Aldermore which is planning a stockmarket listing next month.
"If we have the right assets at the right price and they make sense to our shares, then we would look at them," the bank's chief executive Paul Pester said today.
UK regulators are keen for new banks to challenge Britain's big four lenders - Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC - which provide three-quarters of the country's personal current accounts.
TSB became Britain's seventh biggest lender when hived off from Lloyds Banking Group last June.
It said it had taken an 8.4% share of all new personal current accounts opened over the past year with almost 500,000 new TSB bank accounts set up in 2014.
The bank wants to lift its share of the personal current account market to 6% from a figure of 4.2% when it listed on the London Stock Exchange.
It expects to pick up more than 6% of all new current accounts opened in 2015. The bank received over £300m of applications to date for its mortgage range it opened to brokers in January, TSB said.
TSB said its pre-tax profit rose to £133.7m for the year ended December 31 from £130.7m in 2013.
Shares in the bank have fallen 10% since their listing on the London Stock Exchange.
Lloyds sold a 38.5% stake in TSB through a stock market flotation of the business in last June followed by the sale of a further 11.5% shareholding in last September.
Lloyds was forced by European regulators to sell the 631 branches which now form TSB as a condition of receiving state aid during the financial crisis.
It must sell the whole of TSB by the end of 2015 and is free to start selling more shares in the company from today.
