Tuesday 15 January 2013

Savings rates plummet

It's true: banks and building societies really have been cutting the rates they are prepared to offer to savers, as a result of the government's much-trumpeted Funding for Lending Scheme.

Funding for Lending is supposed to give a boost to lending to homebuyers and businesses, by channelling billions of pounds in cheap money to lenders.

But what that means is that the lenders, in other words banks and building societies, don't have to raise so much from people like you and me trying to build up savings.

Competition has been extinguished.

This has been acknowledged by a senior Bank of England figure, Andrew Bailey (the one who used to sign our banknotes) in evidence to MPs today.

He said "What the introduction of the Funding for Lending Scheme has already shown us is that competition for deposits has eased off quite a bit actually, and that has been reflected in a change in the rate paid on deposits."

He said rates had been going up before the summer as banks competed hard to win our custom, but since then they had eased off.

Of course plenty of you have seen this effect on our High Streets and on internet websites already, and Moneyfacts has highlighted it - here as well.

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