One in six of all new mortgages come from High street bank Abbey after its market share soared following the effects of the credit crunch.

Experts in the mortgage industry believe the group's market share has increased to 17% of new business during the first quarter of this year, making it now the UK's second largest lender.

Abbey has suffered alongside other banks and building societies from the impacts of the credit crunch.

But unlike most of its rivals, Abbey is able to tap into funding from the European Central Bank (ECB) through its Spanish parent company Santander.

The ECB has been quicker to respond to the credit crunch than the Bank of England, pumping more money into the markets and accepting a greater range of securities against loans.

This has enabled the group to scoop up some of the market share left by Northern Rock and other lenders who are actively shunning new business.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, said he thought Abbey currently had a market share of about 17% and had been one of the few groups that had not been cutting back on lending.

He said: "As their parent company is in the ECB, they have had much greater access to funding than other lenders as they are able to tap into ECB funding."

If the group is writing 17% of new business, its market share would be nearly double the 9% it had in 2006 - the most recent year for which official statistics are available.

HBOS is thought to have retained its position as the UK's biggest mortgage lender, writing just over 20% of new mortgages.

Meanwhile, it emerged that Abbey will not be passing on the full Bank of England interest rate cut to all of its new tracker customers.

The group is expected to announce that while new borrowers with a 20% deposit will see their tracker rate fall by 0.25% in line with the cut in base rates, those with only a 5% or 10% deposit will see the rate reduced by just 0.12%, increasing the group's margin to 1.37% above base rate.

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