Abbey ups mortgage market share

The UK mortgage market has been restricted by the credit crunch

The Abbey bank has trebled its share of the new mortgage market in the first three months of the year, thanks to the position of its Spanish parent company.

It said its market share was up to 15.9% in the first quarter of 2008, up from 4.9% in the same period of 2007.

The bank was able to benefit from the strong capital position of its parent company Santander.

Spain's largest bank posted a first quarter net profit, just ahead of forecasts, of 2.206bn euros (£1.73bn).

Difficult market

Abbey managed to avoid the difficulties of many of its rivals during the credit crunch because it relies on customer deposits for much of its lending.

Santander has also offered it increased financial backing as well as access to the credit lines offered by the European Central Bank.

Rivals have been putting up prices and withdrawing mortgage products because of increased funding costs in the UK.

Earlier in April, Abbey was the last to pull out of the 100% mortgage market.

But its new lending was £2.9bn in the first three months of the year, up from £1.3bn in the same period in 2007.

Abbey is traditionally ranked third in the share of the UK mortgage market, behind Halifax and Nationwide. It has 704 branches in the UK and plans to open 300 more.

Santander's net profit was up 22.4% and just ahead of forecasts by analysts.