Abbey takes larger chunk of mortgage market

According to recently released figures the High Street lender Abbey has seen an increase in the size of its mortgage market share since the start of this year, as other lenders continue struggling with their lending. The global credit crunch has resulted in many lenders struggling to raise funds on the wholesale money markets but the Spanish origins of Abbey means that it can access funds from the European Central Bank.

Over the first half of this year Abbey has seen its share of the mortgage market increase to over 25%, and officials from the bank have said that it has managed to achieve this success through continued low risk lending. Before the start of this year the bank’s mortgage market share was less than 7%.

One official from Abbey stated: “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.”

In the first six months of this year Abbey has also seen its profits soar, and officials have said that UK profits came to over half a billion pounds for the first six months, which was an increase of 4.4% compared to the first six months of last year.