A&L named most competitive mortgage lender

Permalink: A&L named most competitive mortgage lender
by Kay Murchie

Alliance & Leicester (A&L) has been named the most consistently competitive mortgage lender during the final quarter of 2009, according to research by mortgage search software firm, Evaluate Technologies.

A&L replaced HSBC as the UK’s most consistently competitive mortgage lender during the quarter despite having failed to register any of its home loans in best buy tables during the previous quarter.

In Evaluate Technologies Lender of the Quarter analysis, A&L achieved a score of 23 and beat off rivals including First Direct on 19 points, Woolwich on 15 and fourth with 14 points was HSBC.

However, Royal Bank of Scotland and subsidiary NatWest failed to put in a “best buy” appearance, as did Halifax and Cheltenham & Gloucester, said Evaluate.

Commenting, Julie Speed, National Accounts Director at Evaluate Technologies said: “The changes taking place at the top of the best-buy tables indicate a good degree of competition in the mortgage market which is going to be key to supporting the property market in 2010.

“Brokers will have been particularly pleased to see Alliance & Leicester’s emergence, showing that lenders value the intermediary market,” she adds.

Meanwhile A&L, along with Abbey and Bradford & Bingley (B&B), is set to be re-named Santander later this year.

Santander, which is the second largest banking group in the world after HSBC, became a household name in the UK when it acquired Abbey for £9.5 billion, back in 2004.

In July 2008, it acquired A&L and a few months later, it took ownership of B&B’s savings business and branch network.