Operator
Hello, and welcome to the OSB Half Year Results for 2026. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand to Andy Golding to start proceedings.
Andy Golding
Group CEO & Director
Good morning, and thank you for joining OSB Group 2026 half-year results presentation. This morning, I’ll take you through the key highlights for the first half, providing view and outlook for the remainder of 2026 and beyond, before finishing off with insights into the macro drivers supporting our business. Then I’ll hand over to Victoria for the financials in more detail, before returning for concluding remarks.
Starting with a high-level view of the business, in March 2025, at the investor update, we set out our strategy to remain the number one specialist lender and also our plan to improve RoTE in the medium term. I’m pleased with the resilient financial and operational performance the group has delivered in the first half. We have done what we said we would do, particularly against the backdrop of ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, rising oil prices and the resulting volatility in swap rates and the impact on retail cost of funds.
This slide highlights our three familiar themes. Firstly, we continue to deliver against our lending growth plan. Net loan book growth of 1.3% reflects our discipline in maintaining attractive returns from new lending. Due to strong demand, we wrote more than GBP 1
