Lloyds is the real driver behind the mortgage boom
Britain’s housing market is booming, with mortgage lending soaring and prices rising at giddy, pre-crash rates.
But not everyone is taking part – of Britain’s biggest four banks, two cut gross new mortgage lending last year, and one barely budged on the year.
In fact, the boom in lending is almost all coming from Lloyds.
Last year the bank’s mortgage lending soared 40 per cent to £36.9bn.
That dwarfs second place Barclays’ £17.1bn, down six per cent on the year, HSBC’s £14.4bn, down 24.2 per cent, and RBS’ £14.3bn, a rise of three per cent.
And the rate of change is not the only factor – Lloyds has the biggest stock of mortgage loans by a huge margin.
Its £335bn in outstanding mortgage loans is more that the stock of loans of the other three combined.
Lloyds might have had to slim down a little after its bailout, but it is still the titan of British banking – and it is only getting bigger.