Expanding Swedish bank Handelsbanken said a year of growth was down to the loyalty of an increasing customer base in the UK.
The 141-year-old bank grew its British footprint from 117 branches in December 2011 to 148 by the end of last year, including new openings in Perth and Stirling.
That led to a 27% rise in fourth-quarter lending to UK personal customers, up to £2.8 billion, while business lending climbed by 22% to £7.7bn.
Customer deposits increased 43% in the period to £3.1bn.
Perth branch manager Alex McDougall said he and his team had also had an encouraging start to this year, building on the success seen since opening in the Old Academy Building in October.
Stirling’s Melville Terrace branch opened in November.
“These results show that traditional banking focusing on satisfied customers without the need for sales targets and staff incentives works,” Mr McDougall said.
His comments were echoed by the group’s UK chief executive Anders Bouvin, who said: “For us it’s not about how far or how fast we grow in the UK.
“Instead it’s about ensuring every day that our branches are able to deliver the best possible service to their customers, based only on their individual needs.”
The bank, which was recently judged as one of the world’s 10 strongest for the second year running by Bloomberg, said it had reaffirmed its “robust” capital and liquidity positions and low credit-loss ratios factors which had led to it earning one of the highest credit ratings of any international bank.