Two different banks, Abbey and Alliance & Leicester are claiming to be the United Kingdom’s second largest mortgage lenders when you combine their businesses together. Both of the banks became a subsidiary of the Spanish group, Santander.

This week, both companies announced their half-year results of business and it did indeed show that they have a large chunk of the business. According to their statistics, they were responsible for covering some 16.3% of the UK mortgage business for the time period of January through June of 2009.

The combination of businesses also turned in a fine profit margin for this same time for the parent company with a rise of 30%. This was mainly due to it’s buying of the Bradford & Bingley’s Savings and Loan. This makes Santander the third largest in the UK for retail deposits.

It was also noted that Abbey’s lending strategy was recognized as being prudent for the time period as they were able to keep their writedowns to a minimum during this time period avoiding any losses during this time of economic slowdown. The bank was also noted for having new mortgages that had a 60% loan-to-value ratio.