British lender Nationwide reported a 40% jump in full-year profit on Friday, as a long run of Bank of England interest rate hikes lifted its finances despite a housing market slowdown.

The country's largest building society reported pre-tax profit of 2.2 billion pounds ($2.78 billion) for the year to April 4, up from 1.6 billion.

($1 = 0.7923 pounds) (Reporting by Iain Withers; editing by Jason Neely)