Five lenders take over 80 percent of mortgage lending

It has been revealed in a recent report that five of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders provided over 80 percent of mortgages in 2009. Figures were released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, with the figures showing that the five largest lenders took 82 percent of mortgage lending in total in 2009.

The figures also showed that in 2007 the five largest lenders were accountable for just 67 percent of all new mortgage lending, and this shows how the concentration of loans amongst the five lending giants has increased over the past couple of years since the global financial crisis and the recession.

The five lenders in question are Lloyds TSB, Spanish owned Santander, Nationwide, Barclay’s, and RBS. The Council of Mortgage Lenders has stated that this is a trend that is likely to continue through further consolidation in the marketplace. Many lenders have now started offering their best deals directly, which means that more customers will bypass brokers and go direct to the lender.

The top spot when it came to share of the mortgage lending market went to Lloyds TSB, which took a 28 percent share of all outstanding mortgage balances, and just over 24 percent of gross mortgage lending in 2009, equating to £34.7 billion. However, this was a big drop from its 2008 total, which came in at £78 billion.

Second place went to Spanish owned bank Santander, which now owns Abbey and Alliance & Leicester. Nationwide came in at third place when it came to market shares amongst the top five lenders, and in joint fourth place was Barclay’s and RBS when it came to market share of outstanding mortgage balances, although Barclay’s came in at 5^th place for gross mortgage lending.