Methodology

The series

Our figures come from the Secured Loan Index dataset, which collects each series from its publisher. We read it as published and never write to it.

• Second-charge new business: Finance & Leasing Association, monthly.
• Second-charge new agreements: Finance & Leasing Association, monthly.
• Bank Rate (monthly average): Bank of England (series IUMABEDR), monthly.
• 2-year fixed, 75% LTV (quoted): Bank of England (series IUMBV34), monthly.
• 5-year fixed, 75% LTV (quoted): Bank of England (series IUMBV42), monthly.
• SONIA (monthly average): Bank of England (series IUMASOIA), monthly.
• 5-year gilt yield (monthly average, nominal par): Bank of England (series IUMSNPY), monthly.

Quoted rates are the Bank of England's monthly averages of advertised first-charge rates for new lending at 75% loan to value. They are not the rate any one borrower will be offered, and they don't include second-charge pricing.

Calculations

• Volumes (value and number of agreements) compare with the same month a year earlier, as a percentage, to avoid seasonal swings.
• Rates compare with the previous month, in basis points (1bp is 0.01 percentage points).
• Year to date adds January to the latest month and compares with the same months a year earlier. If any month is missing, we don't show it.
• The average loan is the value of new business divided by the number of agreements for the month. It is a mean, not a typical case.
• “The number” on the homepage is the year-to-date change in second-charge lending by value, rounded to a whole percentage.

Timing and revisions

Pages refresh as soon as new figures are loaded, and at least hourly. Bank of England quoted rates are published on the fifth working day of the following month. The FLA's second-charge figures have arrived about two months after the month they cover, so we show their next date as an estimate (“late Oct”).

We label the latest FLA month provisional until the next release, because the FLA can revise it; the FLA doesn't use the label itself. When a source revises a figure we show the revised figure and keep a record of the change.

Reusing our figures

You're welcome to quote our figures. Please credit the original source and Lending Intelligence, for example “Bank of England, via Lending Intelligence”.

The CSV downloadincludes the Bank of England series, which are reused under the Bank's terms. FLA figures are shown on the site under licence and aren't included in the download; for those, go to the FLA.

See also the data desk and the Secured Loan Index methodology.