BANK OF Ireland was quick to defend its advertising campaign in which it claims to “say ‘yes’ to 100 mortgage applicants daily” in light of new figures on mortgage lending from the Irish Banking Federation (IBF) on Monday.

A reader of One More Thing noted that if the bank’s claim was applied to figures released by IBF for the final quarter of 2009, then the bank would have provided more than 60 per cent of loans in the Irish mortgage sector.

Bank of Ireland, as well as AIB and EBS for that matter, are punching well above their weight in terms of new mortgages but this seems a little high. AIB has about 40 per cent of the new mortgage market, compared to a traditional level of 17 per cent, while EBS has a share of about 35 per cent.

Bank of Ireland responded by saying their 100 a day mortgage approvals was wholly accurate.

A spokeswoman for the bank said comparing the figures in the advertising campaign to the IBF’s mortgage figures was “like comparing apples to oranges”.

The IBF’s figures related to the number of mortgage approvals drawn down by applicants buying a house, while the bank’s figures were based on the number of applications approved by the bank. Some 9,946 mortgages, including top-ups, remortgages, and buy-to-let loans, were drawn down in the final quarter of 2009, equating to 765 a week or 109 day, according to the IBF figures.

The bank’s spokeswoman would not comment on the actual percentage of the mortgage market share held by Bank of Ireland. In a disclaimer attached, the bank noted that their 100 a day figure is based on the average number of mortgage applicants approved between February and September 2009.

The IBF estimated that the level of approvals for home loans is running at about 10–15 per cent ahead of the number of mortgages drawn down by applicants.