Abbey's mortgage dominance

Commenting on Abbey's new mortgage dominance, Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at moneysupermarket.com, said: "Abbey overtaking HBOS as Britain's mortgage leader continues the theme of 2008 being the year of new ‘movers and shakers' in the mortgage industry.

"HBOS managed expectations at the end of 2007 by declaring its decision to exercise caution over lending and chase higher-margin loans at the expense of volume. With it improving rates three times in July, it shows though that it isn't happy volumes have dropped away so sharply.

"Abbey though is still winning the price war with its best two-year fixed, three-year fixed and two-year trackers coming in cheaper than the Halifax.

"The rapid growth of Abbey, which has supplied 26 per cent of all home loans taken out in the first half of 2008, underlines the strength of its parent company, Santander. Potentially, the Spanish group is not suffering from the same issues around mortgage backed securities that is hitting UK lenders and this could give Abbey a real advantage going forward."