Lenders' hopes that strong equity market conditions in the second half of last year would flow through into higher demand for margin loans have not been realised. Margin lending figures published by the Reserve Bank last week show account balances fell in the December quarter.Balances fell 3.6 per cent from A$12.6 billion in the September quarter to $12.2 billion in the December quarter. Over the year to December balances fell 18.9 per cent.The margin lending market has been in decline since late 2007, when balances reached a peak of $41.6 billion. Balances have fallen 70.1 per cent since then.The number of client accounts fell from 187,000 in September to 182,000 in December.The average number of margin calls in the December quarter was 0.64 per 1000 clients per day, down from 0.85 per 1000 clients per day in the September quarter.Borrowers are still recovering from the bear market in 2008, when margin calls reached 8.6 per 1000 per day.