Postcode lending data

The data published is restricted to Great Britain only, and so excludes Northern Ireland and the crown dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man).

What is being reported?

HSBC is publishing data on its stock of lending in three separate areas: small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), residential mortgages and unsecured personal loans.

All figures reflect the total amount of borrowing outstanding on customer accounts.

What is a sector postcode?

A postcode is a sorting and routing instruction to Royal Mail staff and not necessarily a geographically accurate description of where properties are located.

They are made up of several components, as follows:

The data published here reflects borrowing in 'live' postcodes (according to the list published by the Royal Mail).

Customer confidentiality

A major consideration and necessary requirement has been to maintain customer confidentiality.

A general level of protection is afforded, by publishing postcode figures roughly six months in arrears. This is a deliberate part of the design of this exercise, and will be an ongoing feature.

We have also applied a number of specific rules agreed with the banking industry and Government to ensure that sensitive or confidential data is hidden and not capable of being accessed by users. For example, postcode sectors containing lending for less than 10 SMEs are excluded from reporting.

For this reason, a large number of postcode sectors cannot be published.

Industry aggregated data and definitions

The BBA will publish aggregated data for SME lending and unsecured personal loans on its website at www.bba.org.uk

The CML will publish aggregated data for mortgage lending on its website at www.cml.org.uk

Publication dates

Future data will be made available on a quarterly basis, relating to a date point six months in arrears.

Published data on mortgages, loans and SME lending by area and sector

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.