UK direct bank Egg netted nearly a quarter of a million new customers in the first quarter of 2001 and maintains that it is on course to break even by the end of the year.
Egg reports operating income up fourteen per cent from last quarter to £36.5 million. The bank posted a pre-tax loss of £37.9 million, representing a 1.1% improvement on Q1 2000 (and 5.4% on last quarter).
Despite the losses, Egg maintains that it remains on track to break-even before the year is out.
Paul Gratton, Egg chief executive, comments: "We are pleased with the strong start we have made to the year. The acceleration in our rate of customer growth in an increasingly competitive environment is particularly encouraging. Egg is proving attractive to a market that is becoming comfortable with using technology to manage its financial affairs."
Egg is winning customers from high street rivals by offering headline-beating interest rates on savings and credit card debts. Gratton says Egg has acquired 223,649 million new customers in just three months (40% of last year's total customer growth and up 60% on Q4 2000). The number of products cross-sold has also increased from 97,000 last quarter to 107,000 this quarter.