Bradford businesses seeking funding could get a share of an extra £2 billion of loans to be offered by Yorkshire Bank over the next two years.

The new money will be made available through the bank’s financial solutions centres, including one in Canal Road, Bradford, which also covers Calderdale and Kirklees.

National Australia Bank, which operates the Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks in the UK, has pledged to make available a total of £10 billion in new business and mortgage lending.

In August Yorkshire Bank said it would be making available another £100 million of funding and stressed that deposits taken in locally would be used to provide finance for local firms.

National Australia Bank said its UK arm was “moving up a gear” in spite of revealing that annual pre-tax profits for the banks had fallen by 68 per cent to £108 million in the year to September 30.

Kath Myers, Yorkshire Bank’s regional director, said: “We’ve kept our business safe, secure and in the best possible shape by maintaining a strong capital position and supporting our customers in these challenging times. We will continue to avoid the excesses of the sector and will maintain our careful strategic approach.”

Clydesdale and Yorkshire said the banks’ prudent approach to lending meant that the proportion of mortgages more than three months in arrears was less than a third of the UK average, at 0.8 per cent. They said they both had a “clear and enduring commitment” to support customers during the recession.