Financial services to be affected by BoE decision

Thu, 05 Jul 2007

The Bank of England's monetary policy committee is set to meet today, an event that will have repercussions throughout the financial services sector.

Customers with, or considering taking out, personal loans, credit cards, mortgages and savings accounts could find that the rates they pay or receive hinges on today's announcement.

For example, if the Bank of England opts to lift the base rate of interest, many mortgage lenders will opt to pass on this change to their customers by raising their standard variable rates, while tracker mortgages will automatically alter accordingly.

Conversely, Britons who regularly deposit money into savings accounts could well find that their providers follow suit and offer them more interest on their money, thereby meaning greater returns.

The base rate of interest currently stands at 5.5 per cent, although 12 months ago it was 4.5 per cent.

In last month's meeting of the monetary policy committee there was a five to four vote to hold the rates, although governor Mervyn King voted to raise them, the first time he has made the least popular choice.


add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.