Egg cracks market with first profit

THE Prudential's pioneering internet bank, Egg, has made its first profit after a huge boost in customer numbers.

Egg made a pre-tax profit of £4.1m in its UK banking operations in the first quarter of 2002, compared with a loss of £37m for the same period a year earlier. Overall group profits were £2.4m.

The group said it had more than 157,000 customers during the first quarter, bringing its total customer base to 2.1m. Of these, 1.5m now hold Egg credit cards. The bank said it was to launch in France later this year.

Historically low interest rates and low unemployment have buoyed consumer confidence and credit-card spending in Britain, and Egg said it had made a good start to the second quarter.

'With revenues growing strongly and costs remaining tightly controlled, we are sustainably profitable in the UK,' Chief Executive Paul Gratton said in a statement, adding Egg had won 50,000 new customers during the start of the second quarter.