When the activity and recent performance of the high street banks was reported recently by the British Bankers Association (BBA), the figures made intersting reading. Cetainly the banks have changed in where they generate business these days, with the impact of stricter regulatin and the new style financial economy not being driven purely by rising home values.

The high street banks are still working out how they will build for the future in the new era of banking and only some of their operating sectors are seeing profits, yet the figures look good so far.

It is clear from the latest BBA statistics that people are buying houses again. Mortgage approvals are starting to climb again, in fact the recovery started over a year ago, but the previous drop was so bad, that even the recovered levels seen today are still a long way from the previsou highs. It may well be that the housing market never sees the levels of activity they did 5 to 10 years ago.

One area that is still running at low levels is the remortgage business. Previously that made up a huge service area for financial businesses, especially banks. People were almost encouraged to switch mortgages ever two years or so, because mortgage providers were grabbing market share. The mortgage churn was huge. But that has all but stopped and remortgage levels are now lower than they have ever been in recent history.

Pension Changes

Mortgage volumes