High street banks have come under fire for cutting savings rates even though the Bank of England has kept interest rates on hold since April, and is expected to vote again for no change this week.

Abbey, owned by Spanish banking giant Santander, became the latest bank to lower rates on some accounts today by up to 0.2 percentage points. It followed a similar move by Barclays last week and by Halifax last month.

The cuts come as banks are desperate to preserve profits in the wake of a disastrous results season.

HBOS, owner of Halifax and the Bank of Scotland, has already announced a 72 per cent drop in profits for the first half of the year, while Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to announced the biggest loss in banking history this week at £1.2 billion.

Abbey has bucked the trend, with a strong performance in the mortgage market, but analysts said existing savers could still expect to suffer as the bank tries to offset the cost of attracting new business.

The bank has reduced rates on its popular ESaver account, for example, by up to 0.2 percentage points, taking the interest for someone with a balance of between £1 and £50,000 from 5.4 to 5.2 per cent (including a 0.5 point introductory bonus).

People with more than £500,000 in the account have seen rates go down by 0.05 per cent.

Kevin Mountford of Moneysupermarket.com, a comparison site, said: “This is a strategy we see time and again in the UK savings market: banks take advantage of their existing customers, known as the ‘back book’, to recoup the cost of attracting new business.”

Abbey defended its move: “We have taken the decision to review our full range of savings accounts due to current market conditions and recent competitor changes. These include savings rate cuts from the Halifax and most recently Barclays,” a spokesman said.

“We have increased rate on four of our accounts including the Child Trust Fund and our First Home Saver which assists first time buyers saving for that first step on the housing ladder. Abbey has reviewed pricing across its full savings range to ensure that its competitive position is maintained.”

Barclays came under fire last week for cutting rates on five accounts that are no longer open to new business, by up to 0.25 percentage points.

Savers will be particularly disappointed by cuts to its Tax Beater Cash Isa, a flagship account in last year's Isa season with a rate of 6.5 per cent. The rate dropped from 5.06 per cent to 4.81 per cent.

Halifax also came under fire recently for cutting rates on its Websaver, Monthly Saver, Isa Saver, Saver Reward and Instant Saver accounts.