The numbers that prove Nationwide is beating three of the big four banks

As the name suggests, Britain’s Big Four banks are usually considered the biggest lenders in the country.

 

But the country’s biggest building society, Nationwide, today released numbers showing it is firmly the second-biggest mortgage lender in the county.

 

On top of that, it's growing far faster than RBS, Barclays and HSBC, pulling further ahead. Only Lloyds is bigger.

 

This chart shows the building society’s gross mortgage lending in 2013-14, compared with the big banks’ mortgages in 2013.

 

 

The time period is not perfectly comparable, with Nationwide reporting their full year results up to April rather than a calendar year.

 

But the scale of the difference is so sharp that the result is clear – Nationwide is very firmly the second biggest mortgage lender.

 

Here we can see the stock of outstanding mortgage loans for each institution, with Nationwide just above of Barclays.

 

 

And as this final graph makes clear, Nationwide is accelerating as three of the big four stagnate or move backwards.

 

 

It looks like it is time to formally include Nationwide in the Big Five.