HSBC boosted mortgage lending in the first nine months of this year, increasing its share of the market to 14.5% – up from 11.6% last year.
The group approved £15.6bn in mortgages, 22% higher than for the same period last year. The sum included £4bn in gross lending to first-time buyers, up by a third.
HSBC is the only one of the UK’s big six lenders not to have signed up to Funding for Lending, saying that it does not need to take part in the scheme as it funds its lending through retail savings deposits.
The bank has pledged to lend at least £17bn to mortgage borrowers in its current financial year.
Elsewhere in its quarter three results, the now-familiar tale of a bank having to raise its provision for PPI compensation emerged. In HSBC’s case, it has made a further provision of £220m, taking its total PPI bill to over £1.2bn.
The group has also had to set aside an additional £500m to cover fines from US authorities which accused the bank of inadvertently allowing rogue states and drug cartels to launder billions of pounds through its US arm.
The lender has now set aside £935m to cover this, but warned that no agreement as to the size of the settlement has been made and the cost could be ‘higher, possibly significantly higher’.
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