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The mortgage market game has now turned into one where the strategy you used to build your tower could come crashing down on top of you.

Earlier this year I remarked the mortgage market scrum of the last few years had started to become more like a gentile game of bowls.

Rather than lenders clambering over each other to grab hold of the ball and run to victory like they had been doing, interim results revealed it was now more of a case of "After you" for the majority.

When a lender raised its rates and its rivals found themselves thrust to the top of the best buy tables rather than jump for joy the majority - excluding Abbey and HSBC - beat a hasty retreat from the front of the pack.

But, if I am not mistaken bowls has been replaced in the last few weeks by what can only be described as financial services Jenga on a global scale.

For those unfamiliar with the game, it involves stacking wooden bricks into as high a tower as you can create. You have to start pulling bricks from lower down in the structure and placing these on top in order to build upwards.

The hope is you can build a towering structure without making it too unstable by pulling away any bricks that are vital to its structure. Failure is to pull away a key block and have the structure come toppling down on top of you.

Behind its seemingly simple exterior, Hasbro stated Jenga was a surprisingly daring game that "builds to a suspenseful, high-spirited climax."

My fear is that comment will also prove to be the case for the game that is going on among our banks.

The banking sector has built itself up to a mighty tower by standing on each others' building blocks. While the demise of Lehman Brothers may not have toppled the tower it has severely shaken its structure to its very foundations.

The tower was still standing when Northern Rock were pulled out and placed precariously on the top but you have to wonder if it could sustain having any more lenders like Bradford & Bingley tugged out.

Unlike the party game, the climax we are all hoping for is that the UK financial services tower can stay standing and eventually someone will come to the table with more wooden blocks to plug the holes that are emerging in our foundations. Let us hope we can find someone who is willing to play this game.

Emma Ann Hughes is editor of Mortgage Adviser