Alliance & Leicester is to launch a range of deals that combine a mortgage with unsecured lending - competing with Northern Rock and BM Solutions.

A&L’s entry into this market follows the price war currently taking place between Northern Rock (with its Together range) and BM, as they both slashed the rates in their part-mortgage/part-loan ranges over the past month.

In its preliminary results for 2006, published today, A&L said it will enter new segments of the prime mortgage markets in which it currently has no specific offerings - with its biggest plans being to offer customers combined mortgage and unsecured lending.
The product, to be called Plus Mortgage, will offer high credit quality customers, with no deposit, the opportunity to buy a home of their own.

Plus Mortgage will be launched in quarter 2 this year, initially only available through mortgage intermediaries, with a planned roll-out to the bank's direct channels in due course.

Its net mortgage lending was £4.9 billion, with a market share of 4.4%. Gross mortgage lending was £12.6 billion, a market share of 3.6%, while mortgage redemptions were £7.7billion, a market share of 3.3%.

During 2006, 10% of new mortgage lending had an average loan to value of over 90%, in line with the estimated industry average.

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