Abbey takes 15.9% of mortgage market

Abbey, which is now the UK’s second largest mortgage lender, increased its share of the home loans market to 15.9% in the first three months of the year.

The figure translates as a meteoric rise when compared with the 4.9% share held in the first quarter of 2007, rising to 8.5% in the final quarter of last year.

The Spanish-owned bank recorded net mortgage lending of £2.9 billion during the first quarter, a rise of over 100% on the same period of 2007.

The credit crisis has left Abbey in a strong position compared to many of its rivals because its parent company, Santander, has had access to European Central Bank funds during the credit crisis.

These have been provided on more agreeable terms than the money auctioned regularly by the Bank of England.

In addition, Abbey has no exposure to US sub-prime mortgages and is less reliant on the wholesale money markets than some of its competitors.

The bank says that the credit crisis has had little impact on its earnings and has posted a 17% rise in profits for the first quarter of 2008, to £235 million.

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