Yorkshire loans record amounts

Yorkshire Building Society has announced that it loaned record sums to customers in 2006, with net lending up 52 per cent on 2005 to £1.3 billion.

The building society cites customer satisfaction surveys and awards for lending excellence from Mortgage Magazine and Lending Strategy as evidence that the underlying cause of its improved lending figures is greater consumer popularity.

But financial commentators may suggest that higher lending figures are in line with UK trends for customers to take on ever-greater debt burdens to cope with unrestrained spending and rising house prices.

Yorkshire lends through both secured products (mortgages) and unsecured personal loans.

Its lending figures were, reassuringly, offset by evidence of growth in the amount members had saved, with 10.6 per cent more in savings accounts than in 2005, taking the total sum saved to £11.3 billion.

This week, HSBC returned reports of record profits for a British bank, but admitted its results had been marred by having to write off customers' bad debt both in the UK and US.

© Adfero Ltd