Thursday, November 06, 2008

Interest Rates slashed to 3% in the UK

The Bank of England has slashed the interest rate by a whopping 1.5% bringing it down to just 3%.

The cut from 4.5% is the largest cut by the Monetary Policy Committee since it was set up in 1997 and the first time the interest rate has fallen to 3% since 1954.

Ben Thompson, mortgages director at Legal & General, says: “The cut today is welcome, but sadly many borrowers aren’t going to benefit.

"There’s no obligation for lenders to reduce their standard variable rates and if last month is anything to go by, most will be reluctant to cut their SVRs significantly because these rates look relatively good value at the moment.

"However, swap rates are gradually starting to come down, albeit much slower than we would like, and this should have a knock-on to fixed rate pricing.”