The BBA recently published its High Street banking statistics for December 2015 and there are some interesting statistics to disect in the report. Some of the key points include:

• Gross mortgage borrowing of £12.4 billion in December was 24% higher than a year ago.

• Overall new borrowing in 2015 was more than 6% higher than the previous year.

• The number of mortgage approvals in December 2015 was 24% higher than a year ago.

• Remortgaging was up 31% and house purchases were up 19%.

• There were 262 million credit card purchases in December 2015, a total value of £13.7 billion. This was an aggregate value 3% lower than in December 2014 (£14.2 billion).
   

Richard Woolhouse, chief economist at the BBA, said: "Last year was a strong year for household borrowing. There was a 6% rise in mortgage borrowing compared to 2014 and consumer credit expanded at more than 5% annually within an overall unsecured market, which is growing at nearly 10% annually.

"Over the past few years businesses have been reducing their bank borrowing partly by deleveraging or by refinancing debt through capital markets; 2015 saw business lending other than construction and real estate move into positive annual growth.

"This data shows that the amount spent on credit cards in December 2015 declined compared to 2014. It seems that consumers were less reliant on credit cards to fund purchases last month, despite Christmas shopping and seasonal sales."