• Gross mortgage borrowing of £12.4bn in the month was 1% higher than in August 2015.

• Net mortgage borrowing is just under 3% higher than a year ago.

• Consumer credit continues to show annual growth of over 6% reflecting fairly strong retail sales and in the case of personal loans and overdrafts favourable interest rates.

Dr Rebecca Harding, Chief Economist at the BBA, said:

"The High Street Banking statistics published today point to a softer housing market, strong consumer credit and slightly weaker business borrowing in August. The data was collected before the Bank of England reduced interest rates to 0.25% and so give an indication of some of the underlying pressures that the MPC was responding to when it made this decision.

"Mortgage borrowing is growing at a slower pace than it has for the last few months reflecting both the slowdown in housing market growth after the April spike and broader trends in the sector".