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IF makes mark on mortgage market

One man's loss is another man's gain, so they say, and the same certainly applies to principles of market share. The sudden demise of the Nationwide Building Society, at least as far as new mortgage business is concerned, has certainly cleared the way for one new entrant to take the market by storm.

Intelligent Finance is the specialist internet arm of HBOS - the bank that was formed on the merger of Halifax and the Bank of Scotland. In its first year of trading, it has romped to around 9 percent of new mortgage business in the UK.

However strong these results may seem, they have taken few people within the bank by surprise. The results represent only half the target for the number of customers that was set for the start up when it was originally launched.

Jim Spowart, IF's chief executive, said that the bank was putting on between 25,000 and 30,000 customers a week: "Most of them are coming from the big four high street clearing banks." However, he also added that, "You can't judge performance on the basis of customer numbers. Internet banks will be judged not on customer numbers but on customer balances."

IF's 9 per cent share of the new mortgage market has catapulted it into the top 5 lenders in the UK, where it holds company with Abbey National, HBOS, Lloyds TSB and Barclays.