Financial product comparison website Moneysupermarket.com has beaten earnings forecasts despite pressure on commission volumes as finance providers put the squeeze on lending.

The company makes money from advertising and takes a cut from any financial products customers apply for through its website. It also has a sister business that compares holiday prices.

Underlying earnings for 2007 came in at £52.9 million, ahead of the £51.3 million market consensus.

Revenue at its principle money arm increased by nearly 50% to £78 million, despite the clamp down on personal lending by banks following the recent sub-prime mortgage and credit crisis.

Chief executive Simon Nixon said all areas of the internet business - which floated last June - performed well, with trading this year remaining strong.

He said: 'We remain very confident in our diverse business model and the benefit it brings to consumers and providers. Given current trading and the ongoing investment programme, we are confident that we can have another successful year.

Shares in the group were up 2% to 135.5p in early morning trading on Tuesday. It has still some way to go before reclaiming the full lost territory caused by concerns over the credit crunch. Moneysupermarket saw its market valuation halve in 2007 as investors sold out, expecting earnings to have been significantly hurt by the banking sector troubles.

Key to the company's strong financial performance in 2007 is the broad range of sectors it serves, including insurance and home services. 'The group has multiple products per division and has several, largely uncorrelated divisions,' said Numis analyst David McCann. 'We do not believe many observers are taking this into account which had led to the price weakness we saw at the end of last year.'

Moneysupermarket recently entered the German market. It launch a website last October called icero.de, offering price comparison on motor insurance and the ability to buy policies through the site. The company said it had seen 'some success' in the three months' trading of 2007, but said work was needed to improve the web site and boost the rate at which enquiries convert to sales.

It vowed not to make a significant investment in the German service until there is clear progress with sales, although there will still some development costs incurred. 'The current site has a very poor user interface and is therefore likely to be suffering weak conversion rates,' said Numis' McCann. He added that international expansion is the most 'significant opportunity' to the company.