Moneysupermarket.com takes hit from Funding for Lending

23rd Apr 2014 08:29

Price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com has taken a hit from the British government's Funding for Lending scheme as it reported a flat start to the second quarter.Moneysupermarket said the scheme, under which ministers have provided funding to encourage banks to lend to home-buyers and businesses, reduced competition for savers' deposits, cutting the number of people buying savings products."This markedly reduced savings revenue year-on-year, although this was offset by growth in current accounts and a number of minor channels," it said.Money revenues were 4% higher than the first quarter of 2013 on a 10% fall in visitor volumes.Quarterly insurance revenues were flat, travel revenue was up 41% and home services revenue lifted 59%.Group revenue in the first few weeks of the second quarter was flat with last year and trading trends largely matched the first quarter of 2014, but the company said it was confident and its full-year expectations were unchanged.Offline marketing costs were up a fifth on a year ago due to new advertising campaigns.Group revenues and underlying pre-tax earnings for the first quarter were, respectively, 8% and 5% ahead of a year ago.Chief Executive Peter Plumb said: "Helped by our increasingly diversified business, this was a good first quarter given the headwinds we've faced since last year. Our investment programme is on track."Shares fell 6.6p or 3.5% to 180p by 08:59.PW