Santander writes one in five UK mortgages

Santander UK profits grew more than 15% in the first three months of the year to £426m, with revenue up 8%.

Results for the first quarter of 2010 show gross mortgage lending grew to £5.7bn, an estimated gross market share of 20%, while net mortgage lending was £1.5bn. It also increased its lending to SMEs by over 18% compared to Q1 last year.

Santander said it believed it was in a "robust position" despite the economic climate due to the quality of its prime residential portfolio and reduced exposure to unsecured lending.

Santander revealed the stock of properties in repossession made up just 0.07% of its overall portfolio, compared to a CML average of 0.14%. Properties in arrears three months or over made up 1.14% of its portfolio, again below the CML average of 2.38%.

It said that both the Abbey and Alliance & Leicester brands remain "significantly" better for arrears than the industry average.

Its average loan-to-value on new mortgages is 63%, down slightly from 64% in Q4 2009, while the avreage on its total mortgage stock at 53%, again down one per cent on the previous quarter.

In addition, Santander has seen its net deposits from retail, corporate and banking clients grow to £3bn in Q1, up 240% on Q1 2009.

António Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Santander UK, said: "Our first quarter performance shows that our business model continues to deliver improved performance, increased market share and sustained profit growth."