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A string of banks and building societies stung savers this week with cuts in interest rates — with some passing on more than the half percentage point cut in Bank rate.
Intelligent Finance, the online bank owned by HBOS, cut rates on all of its savings accounts by up to 0.65 percentage points, while Tipton & Coseley building society reduced its rates by up to 0.90 points, data from price comparison site Moneyfacts.co.uk shows. NatWest will cut rates by up to 0.60 points from Monday.
Other companies that last week cut their rates by more than October’s half-point reduction in Bank rate include the Chesham, Monmouthshire, Nottingham, Scarborough, and Stroud & Swindon building societies.
They follow in the footsteps of Chelsea building society, which cut some rates by 0.70 points the previous week.
High-street banks Barclays and Lloyds TSB, Britannia building society and private banks Butterfield, Cater Allen and Coutts are among those to pass on the half-point cut on at least some of their accounts.
Fixed savings rates are also tumbling as conditions in money markets ease. In mid-July, there were 35 products on the market paying 7% or more from 14 different firms. Today, there are just six products from two lenders: ICICI Bank, which pays up to 7.10%, and Anglo Irish Bank, which has a top rate of 7.05%.
ICICI, the Indian bank which has long topped the best buy tables with its High Save one-year bond, cut its rate by 0.10 percentage points on Wednesday.
First Save, the online arm of Nigerian Bank FNB, which offered a three-year bond at 7.10%, quietly disappeared from the fixed-rate savings market in October. A note on the bank’s website said new fixed-rate bonds had been “temporarily withdrawn”.
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