Beating the big banks 10 / 03 / 2011

LEEK United is one of a handful of smaller lenders beating the big banks by offering the majority of Britain's most competitive mortgage rates.

Leek United, and similar sized building societies, provide a staggering 71% of the country's top 500 mortgages - despite having only a 25% share of the mortgage market.

The figures have been provided by Moneyfacts, the UK's leading independent financial researcher.

Mike Williams, Leek United's Head of Lending, said: "It's always been a common misconception that the big high street banks are the most competitive, simply because of the volume of business that they do.

"In fact smaller societies can often be more competitive on pricing because a lot of the money they lend is their own, from savings deposits rather than funds generated from the wholesale money markets."