The total value of outstanding loans at the end of Q2 of this year was £1,223 billion, an increase of 0.1% on last quarter, according to latest data published by the FSA.

New advances in the quarter amounted to £37 billion, 1% higher than in Q1 and much the same as Q2 last year.

The overall average interest rate on new advances rose from 3.50% last quarter to 3.78% in Q2. This resulted from increases in the rates for both variable rate lending and for fixed rate lending.

New commitments totalled £40 billion in the quarter, a 7% rise from last quarter but very similar to the amount in Q2 last year.

Lending for house purchase accounted for 62% of new advances, up on both last quarter and on Q2 2011, and for 65% of commitments, the highest proportion yet recorded. As a consequence, the proportion of advances for remortgages fell back to 31%.

The proportion of new lending done at an LTV of more than 90% was above 2% for the second successive quarter. New lending with a combination of high LTV and high income multiple was unchanged from the previous quarter, slightly in excess of 1% of new lending.

The proportion of loans to borrowers with an impaired credit history remained at the same low level as last quarter (0.3%).

In Q2 there were 34,400 new arrears cases, a decrease of 3% on last quarter and some 4% lower than Q2 last year. The total number of accounts in arrears at the end of the quarter also fell in Q2, by 2% to 296,500, 11% less than in Q2 2011 and the lowest total number since the end of 2007.

The proportion of the residential loan book that is in arrears, and hence not fully performing, continued to fall, down to 2.44% in Q2 from 2.52% in Q1. Arrears totalling £27m on 7,882 accounts were capitalised in Q2.

The number of new possessions in the quarter fell by 9% to 8,720.