Nationwide has raised its impairment provision balance from £187m in April to £256m.

This number comes from its interim results for the period ending 30 September.

In it, the lender states that while arrears improved “slightly” during this period, “With cases more than three months in arrears representing 0.32%” – compared to 0.34% in April – “an increase in arrears from current levels is expected, due to rising inflation and increasing interest rates negatively impacting household finances.”

It explains that its provision has been increased, “Due to deterioration in the economic scenarios used to model expected credit losses, including an increase in provisions for the impact of increasing interest rates on mortgage affordability.”

This follows Lloyds taking similar action as revealed in its Q3 financial results, in which it said it has set aside £668m to protect itself against mortgage and loan defaults, due to a “deterioration in the economic outlook”.

The report goes also shows that total gross mortgage lending grew from £18.2bn to £19.7bn across its reporting periods and that the market share of gross advances went from 11.4% to 11.8%.

Additionally, mortgage balances lifted from £198.bn to £203.6bn, “in line with market growth”.

Prime mortgage balances, it adds, increased from £154.4bn to £159.2bn, and buy-to-let and legacy mortgage balances rose from £43.7bn to £44.4bn.

The number first-time buyers served, however, shrank, from 30,000 in the previous period to 27,500 as of 30 September.