Nationwide reported a 40% fall in profit as it booked a hit of more than £100 million from the coronavirus pandemic.

The building society said that underlying profit before tax dropped to £469 million in the year ending April 4. It was £788 million the year before.

It came on underlying income of just over £3 billion, down around 4%.

The company had already been seeing pressure on its profits from its investment in technology and payouts for payment protection insurance (PPI) before booking a £101 million hit from Covid-19.

"While the coronavirus impacted our profitability in the last few weeks of the year, there was pressure on margins even before it hit," said chief executive Joe Garner.

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The business has allowed its mortgage holders to apply for payment holidays to help them through the economic downturn.

On a call with reporters on Friday morning, Mr Garner said that many people will have applied for a holiday out of caution.

"Probably the very first people to apply would be those who are really on top of their financial position and we know there are a lot of people who have taken them as a precaution, and will go back to paying in full at the first opportunity," he said.

Around 280,000 customers have taken a payment holiday with Nationwide, a "vast majority" of which are for mortgages.

The building society has also promised that no-one will lose their home in the next 12 months because of the impact of coronavirus.

The crisis has also enabled some people to save more.

While some current account holders are struggling, having seen their income reduced, others are able to put more away because they are spending less by staying at home.

"People who are working and are being paid as normal, they're just able to spend less," said Sara Bennison, Nationwide's chief product and marketing officer.

"People have very front of mind now about why it's important to save," she added.

While the property market has taken a serious hit, having dropped by around half according to government statistics, the market is starting to stabilise, Nationwide said.

People are also starting to think about how working from home changes where they want to live.

"We can see people start to factor in that 'maybe if I'm going to be working from home more, that's going to influence my choice of home', and that means different things for different people," Mr Garner said.

Derek Cribb, chief executive of the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), has said it would be "perverse" for the Government to not offer continued financial support for the self-employed.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Cribb said: "I think it would be quite unusual and quite perverse actually if the Government don't extend the scheme.

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"We've got five million self-employed out there, which, over two million have drawn on the scheme to date. They're looking at support coming to an end on Sunday and yet the Job Retention Scheme, for those in employed roles, has been extended until October - so there seems to be quite a substantial disconnect in support there."

He added: "I think it's absolutely reasonable that we'd expect to see some sort of taper, as it were, on the support given to the self-employed over the period. But again, mirroring the offer to those who are employed to the self-employed and potentially extending it as well."

A slight improvement has been recorded in business confidence in Scotland - but it still remains near record low levels, a report has found.

The Bank of Scotland's business barometer survey found confidence rose 17 points during May to -33%.

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The monthly barometer questions 1,200 companies across the UK to gauge economic trends.

As the coronavirus crisis continues, demand for products and services remains low but the picture has improved slightly since April.

The survey found 65% of Scottish firms experienced a fall in demand for their products and services, down seven points on the month before.

Meanwhile, 12% had an increase in demand, up on 5% in April.

There are also signs companies are starting to reopen after shutting down completely in April.

The number of Scottish firms operating at less than 50% capacity increased 18 points to 43% while a fifth of firms were not operating at all, down from 32% in April.

Three-quarters of businesses reported disruption to their supply chain, with 14% of those saying it would take more than a year for it to return to normal.

Fraser Sime, regional director in Bank of Scotland's commercial division, said: "Scottish firms have been hit hard by this crisis, but they're showing resilience in the face of great challenge.

"It's encouraging to see that some businesses are beginning to reopen as demand creeps back.

"We're standing shoulder-to-shoulder with companies from all sectors to help them overcome the challenges presented during this difficult time."