Danske Bank in Northern Ireland made a pre-tax profit of £103m in the first six months of 2024.

That was down 6% compared to the £110m profit for the same period last year.

A major reason for the lower profit was the impact of impairment charges – money which the bank sets aside to cover the impact of bad loans.

In the first half of last year the bank was able to release £15m of impairment charges after its loans performed better than expected.

This year the bank had to set aside £400,000 to cover potential bad loans.

Generally banks have seen a lower level of impaired loans than they expected once interest started rising.

Danske said: “Impairments remain low reflecting the strength of the loan portfolio.”

The bank’s chief executive, Vicky Davies, said they approved £360m of mortgage lending in the half of this year, up over 30% year-on-year.

Housing sales in Northern Ireland have been subdued over the past two years although prices have continued to rise.

Ms Davies said: “Markets are expecting the Bank of England base rate to ease back over the months ahead, and we are anticipating that the healthy level of mortgage lending seen in the first half of the year will continue across the rest of 2024.”