Since its launch in August there are now 30 lenders signed up to the Funding for Lending scheme, according to latest data from the Bank of England.

More than half of these are building societies.

The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) has welcomed the latest announcement from the Bank of England on the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS).

“The Bank of England is clearly keen to make the FLS as inclusive as possible and IMLA is hoping it will decide to widen its remit to include non-banks very soon,” said Peter Williams, IMLA’s executive director.

“The FLS is unlikely to make a significant impact on lending volumes until 2013 and to date it has only had limited effects on volumes and pricing, but this will build up over time.

“IMLA has been very concerned that lending in 2012 and 2013 would remain well below market needs, given the pressures on lenders flowing from tighter regulation, more demanding capital requirements, and the costs of raising funds from the retail market. However, the FLS will help ease this and it has also been a factor in allowing a wider spread of lenders to raise funds in the securitisation market.

“Overall the Bank announcement points up the progress made to date. There is no overnight cure but we are at last seeing positive signs on the funding front and that will slowly feed through to the housing and mortgage markets.”