Banks and building societies are failing to pass on the benefits of base rate changes to savers and borrowers, a report has claimed.
Financial advice firm Moneyfacts have published a study, undertaken with the BBC, which suggests that savers have not reaped the benefits of approximately 20 per cent of recent rate hikes from the Bank of England.
While the base rate has been pushed up by half a percentage point to five per cent over the last quarter and mortgage rates have gone up by 0.51 per cent, savers have only seen a benefit of between 0.38 per cent and 0.42 per cent, the report states.
"It may not sound much, 0.1 [per cent], but if you consider every base rate rise, if they are taking a small proportion every time, it can be very lucrative for the banks," Lisa Taylor of Moneyfacts told the BBC.
"None of the banks are obliged to raise their rates when base rates move, but it would be nice to see a fairer distribution between the increases for both mortgage and savings customers."
The research also suggested that banks and building societies tend to amend mortgage rates much more speedily than saving rates.
These claims were rejected by Angela Knight, chief executive designate of the British Bankers' Association (BBA), who insisted that the Moneyfacts report was "not comparing like-for-like".
"Do savers have the opportunity to go for savings products at a range of mortgage rates? The answer is yes," she told the BBC.
"And on the mortgage side do they have an opportunity for different types of mortgages to suit what their particular circumstance is? And the answer is yes, too.
"Have we got 100 per cent perfection? Possibly not, but we have got a very good working margin."
Source: inthenews.co.uk
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