Santander's Abbey chases HBOS in UK mortgage share.

The specialist publication moneymarketing.co.uk has published the list of top institutions according to UK mortgage loans. In top spot is HBOS, (which operates Halifax and Bank of Scotland) with £73.1bn or an estimated 20.1 per cent of the UK mortgage lending market. Chasing hard is Abbey, which is part of the Spanish banking group Santander with £35.6bn or 9.8 per cent. The list comes from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and covers 2007.
The Abbey's market share has improved in comparison with the 9.4 per cent level in 2006. The Spanish-owned affiliate admits that the exit of other companies from the UK market has helped.
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It would be interesting to get up-to-date figures since Northern Rock would probably have a very different position to last year. In 2007 the Newcastle-based bank had fallen from third to fourth with £29.1bn or estimated market share of 8.1 per cent.
Its new management wants to shrink the loan bank but it might just end up with a load of duff loans. The 2008 first-half results showing losses of half a billion plus were terrible.
The CML figures showed UK building society Nationwide had grown from 5th to 3rd in the ranking with £33.9bn or an estimated mortgage share of 9.3 per cent. My mortgage is with the Nationwide.

HBOS affiliate Clerical Medical stops trail commission.

MoneyMarketing reports that Clerical Medical has stopped trail commission to quite a few independent financial advisers (IFAs). The British financial company, which is part of banking group Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), justifies its move by saying that many customers no longer deal with their IFA.

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MoneyMarketing cites a Clerical Medical spokesperson, who says customers have been telling them they no longer have an IFA and the move is to keep in line with the requirements of the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

I think Clerical Medical has shot itself in the foot over trying to grab a small amount of money. This might mean it is under financial presure. Who knows? The
Halifax share price looks pretty miserable at the moment.

Are you bearish or bullish?

Are you bearish or bullish? I was thinking about increasing my pension provision again and just felt a wave of defeated boredom. I have not got enough spare money.
Are UK equities going to be top-class performers or should I just try and pay off
as much of the mortgage as possible?

I was amazed that there have not been more British banks following the path of
Royal Bank of Scotland and Halifax (HBOS) in launching rights issues to raise more money from their shareholders. I could buy them and hope then
the shares of the two banks go up enough over the next 15 years so that I could retire. (I have been rereading this last sentence and I think it is a load of rubbish!!)

Will mortgage market absorb Northern Rock slack?

Will the British market absorb the residential mortgages, that should
have been written by the tottering UK bank Northern Rock? At the beginning
of November Money Marketing cites John Malone, who says that the
market will struggle to cover the £20bn to £25bn handled by the
Newcastle-based lender. Mr Malone, who is managing director of
Premier Mortgage Service, comments that he is hard put to think of
lenders, who could handle the business.
However, Phil Jenks is more positive since most of Northern Rock's
business is straightforward two year remortgage business. Mr Jenks is
head of mainstream mortgages at Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS).