in the wake of the financial crisis, said it was increasing borrowing across its three- and five-year fixed-rate products by 0.2-0.45 percentage points.
Fixed-rate mortgages have been the most competitive space across the industry in recent times, accounting for about 80 per cent of all new home loans written last year.The main reason is down to the fact that ICS funds itself ultimately on the international capital – or bond – markets. Anyone who has filled a car tank in the past few weeks knows only too well what the conflict in eastern Europe has done to fuel pricing.Financial markets are now pricing the guts of 0.5 percentage points worth of ECB interest rate hikes by the end of this year. Elsewhere, the USis on track to increase rates on Wednesday for the first time in three years, while the Bank of England is tipped to push through a third rate hike in four months on Thursday.
The mainstream banks, unlike non-bank lenders, are mainly funded these days by customer deposits, which are generating nothing for savers at best. The pricing of deposits will remain at zero – or below – long after the ECB starts hiking rates again.