Mortgage lender Abbey has claimed more than a fifth of the shrunken mortgage market between July and September, as it filled the gap left by struggling rivals.

The group's gross lending of £19 billion represented 20.5% of the market - well above its historic 13.4% share - although the figure was 37% down on the previous year.

Spanish-owned Abbey said new mortgage lending of £5.1 billion and overall lending less repayments - represented more than half the estimated market size.

The Abbey group now has two million mortgage customers, as well as trading through the lender Alliance and Leicester and the savings business Bradford and Bingley. It lifted pre-tax profits by more than 30% to £1.16 billion in the third quarter of 2009.

Abbey, which has also raised its corporate lending levels, said it continued to be "a consistent mortgage lender in difficult times".

Bad debt provisions are rising but at a lower than expected rate due to the quality of the loan book and record low interest rates.

Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said: "Our strategy of offering value-for-money products, underpinned by responsible lending and controlled costs, has seen us deliver a significant uplift in revenues and allowed us to continue to support the UK economy with increased lending to homeowners and businesses."

The news emerged amongst a general picture of confidence returning to mortgage lenders, which will hopefully filter through to their lending policies and allow competition to revive.