LONDON (Reuters) - British banks approved slightly fewer mortgages for house purchase in May than in April but overall lending remained robust, seasonally adjusted figures from trade association UK Finance showed on Wednesday.
The number of mortgages approved for house purchase dropped to 42,384 in May from April's more than two-year high of 42,898, while net mortgage lending rose by 1.364 billion pounds after a 1.780 billion-pound increase in April.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, mortgage approvals were the highest since June 2016, the month Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum.
Consumer lending growth picked up slightly to an annual growth rate of 4.1% in May from April's 3.8%.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by William Schomberg)
