Banking giant HSBC has claimed that it has bucked the trend, approving more mortgages in the first half of 2012 than in the same period last year.
And, it has made an additional £2 billion available for the UK market on the back of its first-half activity.
It announced in January that it would make at least £15 billion available for the UK market this year, with £3 billion specifically available for first-time buyers.
By the end of June, HSBC had approved £10.6 billion worth of mortgages, an increase of 16 per cent (£9.1 billion) year-on-year compared to the first half of 2011.
First-time buyers accounted for £2.7 billion of this year’s figure.
A total of 97,000 UK borrowers were serviced by HSBC in the first half of the year, 23,500 of them first-time buyers.
HSBC head of mortgages Peter Dockar said that £ 1 billion of the additional funding would be made available to the first-time buyer market.
He said: “At a time when many other lenders are contracting their lending, we remain committed to helping more customers who aspire to own their own home and we approved a record number of mortgages in the first half of this year. “
The announcement comes as the Bank faces questions in the US over money laundering.
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