By Lars Mucklejohn Challenger bank Shawbrook has reported a dip in underlying profit for the first half of 2024 as looming interest rate cuts from the Bank of England narrowed its lending margins. The privately-held specialist lender posted an underlying pretax profit of £124.5m for the six months, down from £149.3m during the same period last year. Shawbrook partly blamed the decline on stronger originations in retail mortgages, leading to an expected drop in its net interest margin – measuring of the gap between interest received on loans and rates paid for deposits. UK banks have grappled w…