Santander UK profits tumble 19% amid intense mortgage competition and pending court decision

Santander has reported a significant drop in its UK profit for the third quarter, while also delaying the release of more detailed figures to assess the impact of a landmark motor finance court ruling in London.

The Spanish bank announced that its UK arm's profit was €346m (£288m) between July and September, marking an 18.5 per cent decrease from the same period last year, as reported by City AM.

This decline follows a 23 per cent year-on-year fall in the previous quarter as the bank contends with fierce mortgage competition and declining interest rates. Santander partially attributed the third-quarter slump to a one-off gain during the same period last year from selling a stake in Euroclear.

However, the bank's UK revenue still dropped nearly 10 per cent after it maintained higher mortgage rates than some competitors. Despite recent improvements in mortgage activity, aided by the Bank of England's rate cut in August, some lenders have withdrawn their cheapest deals due to uncertainty surrounding the government's forthcoming Budget.

Santander also disclosed a streamlining of its UK operations, reducing its workforce by 468 to 21,812 this year through redundancies and not replacing some departing staff. The bank stated it would not release a more detailed set of UK earnings until it has evaluated the implications of a key court ruling last week that could leave motor finance pr