High street banking statistics – January 2015
Savvy investors look to pensioner bonds as bank deposits fall.
Richard Woolhouse, chief economist, BBA, said: “We’ve seen a sharp drop in bank deposits in the last month as savvy customers take advantage of the attractive rates on offer through the government’s pensioner bond scheme.
“There continues to be strong demand for personal borrowing which is at its highest levels in recent years.
“The housing market appears to be bottoming out with a slight increase in approvals for new purchases in the last month but this is still significantly down on the levels of activity we saw last year.”
– Personal deposits at high street banks declined in January possibly due to the take-up of pensioner bonds which became available during January.
– Annual growth in personal loans and overdrafts (+3.9%) continued to rise, to the highest rate since late 2008.
– Lending to non-financial companies increased by £1.1bn, largely due to higher borrowing by the retail trade, professional services and construction sectors.
– Mortgage approvals were little changed in January compared with December, but were still 20% down on a year ago.
