Barclays UK increased its mortgage lending to £9.9bn and deposits of £20.1bn in 2021, further adding to its strong liquidity position.
The average loan-to-value across the Barclays mortgage portfolio remained stable at 51% whilst it increased to 70% on new mortgage lending, up from 68% in 2020.
Barclays also saw a surge in annual profits linked to the release of cash originally put aside to cushion the blow of the Covid crisis.
Overall the banking giant more than doubled profits from £3.1bn in 2020 to £4.8bn in 2021 thanks in part to the release of £700m in bad debt provisions.
The banking giant also announced the appointment of its first female finance director, with deputy group finance director Anna Cross taking up the role from April 23.
She succeeds Tushar Morzaria, who is retiring after more than eight years in the post and becomes the first woman to hold one of the top three boardroom jobs at the bank.
Barclays also confirmed that it has suspended all of former chief executive Jes Staley’s unvested long-term bonus share awards pending a regulatory investigation into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The bank’s pay committee said it was freezing the bonuses “pending further developments in respect of the regulatory and legal proceedings related to the ongoing FCA and PRA investigation regarding Mr Staley”.
Staley stepped down in November after an investigation over how he described his links to the sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The inquiry was launched after emails between Staley and Epstein were handed to UK regulators by their counterparts in the US.
The findings of the investigation have not yet been made public.
