HSBC holds £340m for PPI claims

The direct-only bank also approved £10.6bn of UK mortgages in H1 2012 up 16% on the year.

Net mortgage lending was £2.4bn in H1 2012 and funding for UK mortgages increased from £15bn to £17bn for 2012.

HSBC announced last month it was pledging an additional £1bn allocated for first-time buyer loans bringing first-time buyer lending to £4bn this year.

First-time buyer approvals in the first half of 2012 were £2.7bn up from £2.1bn in the same period last year.

The bank’s mortgage balance stood at £71.5bn at H1 2012 up from £69.1bn at the end of H2 2011.