Financial services group Bradford & Bingley today unveiled a bumper payday for shareholders after posting a 48 per cent rise in pre-tax profits.

The former building society said it would return £150 million to shareholders through a share buy-back programme over the next 18 months.

B&B has also improved its total dividend by 20 per cent to 13p.

Chief executive Christopher Rodrigues said B&B was able to make the payments because its strategy did not rely on a large amount of capital.

During 2001, B&B said it had continued to make good progress in its transformation from a mortgage and savings business into a financial services group with a mortgage distribution and brokerage arm.