Abbey takes huge slice of mortgage market
The Spanish owned high street lender, Abbey, as recently reported that it has increased its share of the UK mortgage market dramatically over recent months, and this has resulted in the lender becoming the number one mortgage lender in the nation, overtaking the Halifax. Since the onset of the global credit crunch many UK lenders have struggled to raise finances to fund their mortgage lending operations, but because Abbey is Spanish owned it has been able to turn to European sources for funding, increasing its liquidity.
Abbey’s share of the mortgage market in the UK has soared to over 25% in the first six months of this year, and officials from the bank have said that low risk lending has enabled it to enjoy a 16% rise in overall mortgage lending. Before the start of this year Abbey had just a 6.6% share of the mortgage market, but its low risk lending strategy has sent this figure soaring to over 25%.
The bank also confirmed that over the first six months of this year its profits also went up, and the lender enjoyed profits of nearly half a billion pounds in the UK, which was a rise of 4.4% compared to the same period in the previous year.
An official from the bank said: “Our profitable lending growth has been balanced with a prudent risk approach targeting lower loan-to-value (LTV) business and continued reduction of our unsecured portfolio.”
The bank is owned by the Spanish bank Banco Santander, which has also agreed to purchase the Alliance and Leicester after the building society hit problems recently stemming from the effects of the global credit crunch, which is still ongoing in the UK.
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