According to figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), Nationwide became the UK’s second biggest lender last year up from fourth and HSBC jumped from sixth to fourth place.

Santander dropped out of second place for the first time since 2005, moving further down the CML’s lending table than any other provider, from second place to fifth with a 38% drop in lending, previously reported by Mortgage Solutions.

The lender completed £3.3bn of mortgages in the opening three months of 2013 down from the £5.6bn of home loans in the same period last year, suggesting Santander has further to fall down the lending table in 2013.

This saw Santander’s share of the UK market fall from 16.5% in 2012 to 9.6% in the first quarter of this year.

Overall, gross lending last year barely grew from £130bn to £129bn in 2011 but this masks some major movements seen from lenders of all sizes.

Sponsored

The market consolidation since the crash has concentrated the lion’s share of lending amongst the six largest lenders. However, the market share held by the top six fell from 81% in 2011, to 77% today which suggests competition is on the way back.

Other runners and riders included Royal Bank of Scotland who dropped out of the top five to sixth place in 2012 and Coventry Building Society with 26% growth figures in 2012 jumped from 9th to 7th place.

New lender Tesco Personal Finance only launched its first range on 6 August 2012 and lent £300m in the following five months putting them in joint 20th place with Kent Reliance, Just Retirement and Newcastle Building Society.

Aldermore also dropped two places from 16th to 18th despite lending £0.1bn more year-on-year at £0.5bn but retained a 0.3% market share.

Broker favourite ING Direct dropped out of the table after Barclays bought the brand on 9 October 2012 and Virgin Money, notably absent last year replaced Northern Rock in seventh place.