The bank reported a 4per cent rise in pre-tax profits from £129.8m to £135m for the first six months, but failed to highlight a change that actually bolstered profits by £7.2m.
B&B will now amortise the cost of mortgage incentives over their lifetime rather than in the first 12 months.
One analyst said there was nothing wrong with what they are doing, but they failed to highlight the move and it seems rather sneaky. It is cheeky to do this without restating the profits of prior years to get a fair comparison.
The furore came as B&B revealed its new chairman would be the highly regarded Rod Kent, former chief executive of Chase Brothers. Mr Kent, who was on holiday yesterday, will join as a non-executive next month, before assuming the role of chairman on the retirement of Lindsay Mackinlay in November.
