RBS, Barclays, Abbey and HBOS dither to cut SVR

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), NatWest, Barclays (BARC.L), Santander owned (SAN.MC) Abbey and HBOS (HBOS.L) are still undecided if they will lower their Standard Variable Rates (SVR) after the Bank of England yesterday cut the base interest rate by 0.50 percent, however they all said that they will be passing on the full 0.50 percent to all their existing customers that hold a tracker mortgage.

RBS the Edinburgh based bank said that the majority of its small business customers would benefit from the rate cut immediately due to them holding rate-linked loans.

HSBC, Lloyds TSB and mortgage arm Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) and Nationwide all have passed on the full 0.50 percent rate cut to the SVR. Nationwide and Lloyds TSB SVR are now at 3.5 percent with HSBC being cut to 3.94 percent.

Nationwide have insisted that their Tracker Mortgage customers whose contracts include a 2.75 percent collar will not benefit from the interest rate cut.

Source: Reuters blue steel movie

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