The results said over 25,000 first-time buyers have taken a mortgage out with the group so far this year, around a quarter of the total UK first-time buyer market, supported by the NewBuy, Stamp Duty and lend-a-hand schemes.

The bank continued to focus lending on home purchases, with over 70% of its lending targeted at house purchase rather than remortgage.

As a whole, the group reported a loss of £439m in the first six months of the year, after being forced to ring fence £700m for payment protection insurance (PPI) claims.

The total number of mortgages more than three months in arrears remained relatively flat at 75,668, with 6% fewer properties entering arrears than the previous six months.

Of the mortgages in arrears, mainstream loans made up the vast majority of the figure (54,441). Buy-to-let fell slightly to 7,573 and specialist products numbered 13,654. The percentage of mortgage cases in arrears constituted 2.4% of the lender’s mortgage book.

The average indexed loan-to-value (LTV) on Lloyds’ mortgage portfolio remained stable at 55.7%, for new mortgages that figure reached 62.3% LTV. The number of mortgages held with LTVs in excess of 100% fell from 12% to 11.1%.

CML figures released yesterday showed that Lloyds remained the country’s biggest mortgage lender during 2011.