HSBC has claimed to be the UK’s largest lender of mortgages sold directly to homeowners.

It made the claim following analysis of 2009 mortgage lending data recently released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

Despite mortgage brokers writing 60% of UK mortgages in 2009 and ‘whole of market’ brokers not being able to sell HSBC mortgages, the bank still managed to issue almost 10% of all new mortgages, meaning the bank lent one in four of all directly sold mortgages.

This market share is a considerable increase on HSBC’s average between 2000 and 2007 of only 3% of UK mortgage sales.

HSBC’s existing loans equal less than 85p for every £1 held in saving deposits and the bank has a customer acceptance rate of eight out of 10 applications, higher than the industry average.

Martijn van der Heijden, head of mortgages at HSBC, said: “Shopping around is essential when looking for a new mortgage and that means doing more than simply seeing a mortgage broker. Four in 10 customers now choose to get their mortgage directly from their lender