Home loans to cost more despite rate cut by Bank

Britain\'s largest mortgage lenders were last night accused of fattening their profits at the expense of increasingly stretched homeowners as two leading firms ignored the third interest rate cut from the Bank of England in five months and pushed through price increases on some of their most popular home loan offers.

The moves are part of an increasingly rapid withdrawal by lenders from the most competitive mortgage deals as the credit crunch continues to bite and house prices fall. The Bank\'s three rate cuts since December have failed to halt the retreat.

Nationwide said it was raising some of its fixed-rate deals and withdrawing others. Fees on several of its products were put up 40% to ￡699. Meanwhile, Alliance & Leicester will today raise its fixed rates - three days after it last put them up. Abbey and Woolwich raised fixed rates earlier in the week.

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman, said: "There is currently a fundamental disconnect between the Bank of England\'s interest rate and the rates high street banks are willing to offer customers. There is a serious concern that some banks are using the current economic climate as an opportunity to increase profits. We cannot have a situation where banks are screaming at the Bank of England for help, while at the same time using the credit crunch as an opportunity to boost profits."

The Bank of England said yesterday that it had become more concerned about the growing risks to the economy which had prompted its decision to cut rates. "Credit conditions have tightened and the availability of credit appears to be worsening ... the prospects for output growth abroad have deteriorated."

Turmoil in international credit markets, from which many mortgage groups fund home loans, triggered the failure last autumn of Northern Rock, one of the most competitive lenders.

Banks have faced soaring costs for funding new mortgages. Meanwhile, firms have grown increasingly concerned about falling house prices and predictions from economists of a wider recession, possibly lasting well into next year.

Many lenders were yesterday highlighting moves to reduce the cost of so-called "standard variable rate" mortgages in the wake of the cut in interest rates. But these products are still among the least competitive and account for only about 2% of mortgages lent in recent months.

However, tracker mortgages have become increasingly popular. Home owners with this kind of loan will have benefited from yesterday\'s rate cut, although trackers being taken out today are more expensive than a few months ago. Tracker rates are likely to continue to gain in popularity amid speculation that the Bank of England may have to cut rates a lot further. The International Monetary Fund warned this week that the credit crunch could cause the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Despite rising rates, fixed-rate mortgages still account for half of all new mortgages. Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that around 100,000 two-year fixed-rate mortgages were taken out in May 2006 and so will be coming up for refinancing next month.

央行降息但住房贷款成本却增加

昨晚，英国最大的两个抵押贷款机构被指控以损害口袋日益紧张的房主的利益来获取利润，两大公司均无视英格兰银行在五个月内第三次下调基准利率，并对一些最热门的购房贷款优惠推高价格。

此举是最具竞争力的按揭交易机构迅速撤资的结果，这是因为信贷紧缩依然加剧，房地产价格也在下跌。自从去年12月开始央行的三次降息并没有阻止撤资的势头。

Nationwide表示，公司增加了固定利率交易以及撤销了一些其他的交易。几种产品的收费提高了40%，升至699英镑。与此同时，Alliance & Leicester今天会提高固定利率—三天前他们才提高过一次。在本周早些时候，Abbey和Woolwich也提高了其固定利率。

工党财政部发言人Vince Cable声称，“目前央行的利率和商业银行的高利率并没有根本联系，银行还是愿意提供贷款的。我严重关切的是，目前一些银行正在利用当前的经济形势获利。我们不得不面临的一种情况是，一方面是银行大声呼救以得到央行的帮助，另一方面却是利用信贷紧缩来提高利润。”

英格兰银行昨日表示，更加关注越来越大的经济风险，这也促使他们考虑再次降息。“信贷紧缩，惜贷现象加剧…出口增长的前景不乐观。”

许多按揭团体基金住房贷款引发国际信贷市场混乱，去年秋天该混乱导致诺森罗克银行倒闭。

银行不得不面对注资新按揭的成本不断上升。与此同时，公司越来越关注下降的房价和经济学家对一个更广泛的经济衰退的预期，这种形势也可能持续到明年。

央行降息后，许多机构昨日也降低其所谓的"标准可变利率"按揭贷款的成本。但是，这些产品对购房者影响不大，而且也只是在最近几个月减少了约2 ％的按揭贷款。

然而，跟踪按揭贷款却越来越受到欢迎。使用这种贷款的购房者将会受益于昨天的降息，尽管今天的跟踪按揭贷款比几个月前要贵一些。但是该贷款利率有可能会继续受益，因为市场预测，英格兰银行可能会在再度降息。国际货币基金组织本周发出警告，信贷紧缩可能会导致二十世纪三十年代大萧条以来最大的经济危机。

尽管利率上升，但是固定利率抵押贷款仍占所有新抵押贷款的一半。来自抵押贷款理事会的数据显示，有10万左右的两年固定利率抵押贷款在2006年5月就已失效，因此这些贷款只有等到下个月再重新融资。