20 things

20 things you should know about...

3 February 2007

1 The British Banking Associations (BBA) analysis of the Major British Banking Groups (MBBG) net lending figures revealed that gross mortgage lending reached £18.1 billion in December.

2 This was an increase of 7 per cent from the previous years’ findings, the BBA indicated.

3 On a seasonal pattern, the findings dropped from the November record of £21.4 billion, the BBA reported.

4 The BBA revealed that there were 123,518 mortgage approvals in December.

5 This represented an aggregate value of £13.4 billion, the study showed.

6 The average loan approved for house purchases was £146,400, a 9 per cent increase from the December 2005 findings, the BBA study revealed.

7 The BBA also indicated that the outstanding level of mortgage lending grew by 14 per cent in 2006, with the underlying net mortgage lending figure rising by £5.8 billion over the year.

8 The annual volume of loans approved for house purchases was 11 per cent higher than in 2005, with 832,000 approvals, the BBA study showed.

9 This was 20 per cent higher than the 2005 findings, with the value of house purchase approvals set at £115.9 billion.

10 The equity withdrawal market share dropped in 2006, with a fall of 7 per cent in 2006 the BBA suggested in its study of the December market.

11 There were 580,000 loans approved for equity withdrawal in 2006, with their value of £15.8 billion a drop of 1 per cent from the 2005 findings.

12 Compared to the December 2005 findings, house purchase approvals dropped 11 per cent in number, and 3 per cent in value.

13 Remortgaging approvals dropped 20 per cent in number and 10 per cent in value from the December 2005 findings, the study reported.

14 Credit card borrowing fell by £0.3 billion in December, while for the year consumer credit grew by 2 per cent, the BBA statistics showed.

15 New lending on personal loans and overdrafts dropped from the November findings, and after seasonal adjustment, net lending rose by £400 million. This was compared to the recent monthly average of plus £276 million, the research stated.

16 Commenting on the December findings, David Dooks, director of statistics at the BBA, said: “The final quarter of last year, despite seasonally lower activity in December, showed the mortgage market to be stronger than at the same time a year earlier and lending still growing significantly at a time of rising interest rates.”

17 Looking at the consumer credit findings, Dooks added: “The annual growth in consumer credit, at only 2 per cent, is low by historical comparison and, although strong Christmas sales have been reported, our December figures suggest that spending was not fuelled by more borrowing on credit cards.”

18 The MBBG accounts for approximately two thirds of all mortgage lending outstanding and 70 per cent of gross lending.

19 The MBBG members also account for approximately 70 per cent of all consumer credit in the UK, providing over half of all consumer credit outstanding.

20 The MBBG includes Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, Barclays and Woolwich, HBOS; through its Halifax and Bank of Scotland arms, Bradford & Bingley, HSBC Bank, Lloyds TSB; through Cheltenham & Gloucester, Royal Bank of Scotland and National Westminster.