The acquisition of Alliance & Leicester by Santander could reduce the options available to borrowers, it has been suggested.
Your Mortgage editor Pauline McCallion, speaking in response to this week's takeover by the Spanish group that owns Abbey, said that mortgage products are likely to be merged.
She added that the move may bring an injection of confidence to the market, although it may eventually make it more difficult to secure a mortgage.
"It will probably have quite a good effect in terms of confidence in the short term. In the long term what it might actually mean is a slight reduction in choice," she remarked.
Alliance & Leicester's acting chairman Roy Brown said that the deal represented value for shareholders amidst difficult economic conditions.
The bank had a 4.4 per cent share of the mortgage net lending market in 2007, while Abbey held an estimated 15.9 per cent.
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