Since the launch of its mortgage range in August 2012, the bank has steadily made its rates more competitive.

To comply with changes to mortgage regulation, Tesco Bank also confirmed plans to offer a mortgage advice service over the phone from Monday 28 April.

This morning, Tesco Bank revealed profit before tax progressed strongly,
up by 23.1% to £152.6m, from £124m last financial year.

This growth was driven by its core banking products with customer accounts for credit cards, loans, mortgages and savings up 14%. The bank has plans to launch current accounts in the first half of this year.

The bank confirmed its customers received around £120m of Clubcard points in the last financial year.

Tesco chief executive, Philip Clarke, said: “Despite challenging market conditions for our insurance business, we have seen a good customer response to new initiatives. In particular, we have seen strong growth in home insurance following its re-launch. New polices also grew strongly in the second half of the year driven by our products being available to more customers through price comparison websites and by new products such as Tesco Bank Box Insurance.”

Tesco has 530,000 employees and 6,784 shops worldwide, with 3,146 in the UK.

However, the group reported a £3.3bn trading profit which is a year-on-year decline which reflects ‘challenges’ in UK and Europe, however, UK grocery showed growth of +11%.