Nationwide mortgage lending breaks six month record

Mortgages helped Nationwide to strong profits up 27 per cent to £801 million

Nationwise added more than a quarter of a million new customers during the first six months of the year (Getty)

Nationwide has had a record six months on mortgage-lending, up 14.9 per cent to £14.9 billion, taking 13.2 per cent of the UK mortgage market as a whole.

Mortgages helped Nationwide to strong profits up 27 per cent to £801 million. The building society said in its half yearly results that it had helped 25,700 house buyers with mortgages.

Nationwise added more than a quarter of a million new customers during the first six months of the year and saw deposits from savings increase by £2.6 billion as people looked to save their cash.

Chief executive Graham Beale said Nationwide would benefit from new rules affecting six of its rivals about separating retail banking from riskier areas like investment bank.

"They have got a massive distraction. It's a huge complicated undertaking and for the big banks it's going to be costing them in the billions to exercise this change," Beale said.

"These are big undertakings and it's inevitable they will take their eye off the ball ... so we're in a good place."