- Net interest margin above 3 per cent
- Professional landlords look resilient
Paragon Banking Group (PAG) handed out the Christmas goodies in its full-year results with a £50mn share buyback, a 30 per cent dividend increase and a net interest margin of 3.09 per cent that came in well ahead of what anyone had forecast. Investors took the cue to bid up the shares on the day by 8 per cent, which represented their best individual performance for the year. In short, specialist banks – in Paragon’s case with a focus on professional buy-to-let landlords – seem to be far outperforming the large high-street players.