Most popular mortgage lender unveiled

HBOS's domination of the mortgage lending league remains unabated, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

14:55 10 September 2004

HBoS's domination of the mortgage lending league remains unabated, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The CML estimates that HBOS's market share of lending is 26 per cent while Abbey is second with 10.7 per cent.

Abbey are currently the subject of speculation linking the bank with a takeover bid from HBoS, which would result in HBoS boosting its market share to over 36 per cent.

HBoS had 171.1 billion total mortgage balances outstanding at the end of 2003, 22.5 per cent of the market, while Abbey had 11.5 per cent, totalling 88.2 billion.

Nationwide is in third place on lending with nine per cent market share worth 24.4 billion, up from fifth place in 2002.

Lloyds stays in fourth place with an 8.9 per cent market share at 24.2 billion through its subsidiary Cheltenham & Gloucester.

Barclays falls from third to fifth place with 6.8 per cent of the market worth 18.3 billion.

HBoS head of media relations Mark Hemmingway said: "The results demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategy, investment in technology, processing and specifically our relationship with intermediaries."