Santander, which owns Abbey, said that it had taken one in seven new mortgages in the UK as it reported a 30% increase in first-half profits at its UK operations to £790m.
The Spanish bank, which acquired Alliance & Leicester and part of Bradford & Bingley last year, said lending to small businesses had risen by 13% and it had written £2bn in net mortgage lending.
Abbey said it was well placed to weather the downturn because its loan-todeposit ratio was helped by the acquisition of B&B’s savings book last year – meaning it was less reliant on wholesale funding and had continued to lend.
Gross mortgage lending was £10.8bn in the first half, giving it an estimated market share of 16.3%.
Financial Times, Daily Telegraph
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