Lloyds maintains position as UK’s largest lender

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has published its data showing mortgage lending by its members in 2016, with Lloyds Banking Group remaining the largest mortgage lender in the UK.

The lender organisation said that “virtually” all its members provided data, although a small number did not give permission to publish figures. In total, CML members reported data for both new lending and mortgage balances accounting for some 97% of the total mortgage market as published by the Bank of England.

Gross lending overall in 2016 totalled £245 billion, up 11% on 2015, which was a slightly higher rate of market growth than the 9% seen in the preceding year. There was a corresponding increase in marketplace competition, too. 60 lenders appear in the table for gross lending last year (and therefore lent at least £50 million in 2016), up from 55 in the preceding year.

The 10 largest firms continue to undertake the bulk of lending, while smaller players made a major contribution to lending growth. However, the past two years have seen some different movements amongst these smaller peer groups.

In 2015, medium-sized lenders saw particularly strong growth, with a 56% increase in annual lending volumes. They accounted for 12% of total lending, compared to 8% in the preceding year. In 2016, however, these medium-sized lenders saw a gentler rate of growth, and it was the turn of those in the next tier down – those ranked 21-30 by volume of lending – to forge ahead. These firms saw lending volumes grow by 60% in aggregate.

Gross lending by peer group, 2016:

Source: CML Economics

The proportion of new lending by the top 10 firms remained steady at 84% in 2016. Within this, however, there were some sizeable movements: Lloyds Banking Group remained the largest mortgage lender in the UK but continued to shrink its market share, from 17.3% in 2015 to 15.6% last year. Santander UK also saw a contraction in market share, from 11.8% to 10.4%. Moving in the other direction, The Royal Bank of Scotland grew its share by 1.8% to 12.9%, rising one place in the table to become the third largest lender.

Continuing a trend seen for the last two years, a number of challenger banks and specialist lenders also made headway. Among these, TSB Bank saw the most significant growth, increasing market share by 0.5% and moving up one place in the table to 10^th position. And a number of others in this group all saw a significant expansion of activity, most significantly Precise Mortgages with lending growth of 54%, Metro Bank (67%), Fleet Mortgages (150%) and Legal & General Home Finance (200%).

Top UK mortgage lenders by gross lending: