The banking arm of a high street retailer has become the latest mortgage lender to take advantage of the Bank of England's Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS).
Tesco Bank, who recently expanded to offer home loans for the first time, has remained true to its supermarket roots and turned to the FLS because of its low cost.
A spokesman from the lender said: "The Funding for Lending Scheme provides a cheaper source of funding than we normally have access to. By accessing the scheme we've been able to offer even more competitive mortgage products."
The bank is one of 16 lenders to join the Bank of England scheme in the recent weeks, taking the total number of institutions who benefit from the FLS to 30, representing almost 80 per cent of the UK's lending market.
These include high street names such as the Co-Operative Bank, though most are small-to-medium lenders.
The news comes in light of recent scepticism about the immediate success of the scheme.
Peter Williams, Executive Director of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders' Association, said: "The FLS is unlikely to make a significant impact on lending volumes until 2013 and to date it has only had limited effects on volumes and pricing, but this will build up over time."
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