Will the UK drop in base rate make any difference to the crisis?
On the 6th of November, an unprecedented meeting took place involving the Bank of England's monetary policy committee. At that meeting the bank decided to drop their interest rates by a huge 1.5%, bringing interest the interest rate to the lowest level seen since 1954. The rate currently sits at 3%.
The question is, will this help both ourselves and the economy, both in the short and long term. I am afraid that my answer to this would have to be no, I can't see it happening. The reason behind this is that the lenders will be unwilling to pass on the 1.5% to the public because they were unable to pass on the previous rate cut either. To put it into perspective, their standard variable rate is still at the level that it was more than 6 months ago, go figure.
What has happened in both the UK and in the world markets is that, although the banks have indeed lowered their rates, the rates for funds from bank to bank have not decreased at the same level. The London inter-bank offered rate, or LIBOR as it is also known, is the rate at which the London financial institutions lend between themselves. Now whilst LIBOR has indeed decreased of late, it has not done so as much as the banks base rates. So although base rate drop would seem to help, it does not.
The LIBOR rate is dictated by the willingness of the institutions to loan money to each other. Due to the onset of the credit crunch and the fact that the poor lending policies of the institutions have come to light, there has been an unwillingness to lend between the institutions and this has a knock on effect on the LIBOR. They all know about each other's shoddy lending policies of the past and, due to the down turn in the economy, they do not want to expose themselves any further.
You might have thought that the huge injection of capital from governments both here and abroad would have oiled the system but let me tell you this is far from the case. I am unsure why, there are rumors that lenders have been told that as a condition of the injection they have to lend a set percentage more next year than this year and as such they are saving themselves for that mandatory position but who knows. All I know is there is very little money out there, what is there is at low loan to values and the rates are poor.
One thing the Bank of England's decision will more than likely do is raise confidence levels. The public will think that low interest rates mean that things are on the up. However, they may soon realize that this is not actually the case when they see that their lenders are not passing on this decrease to them or to their mortgage payments. We should, however, see commercial finance improve as most commercial finances are set at a slight rate above the actual base rate. This should mean that deals done in the past should see a benefit from the drop.
Irrespective of that, a lot of commercial lenders have bumped up their over base rate level to preempt any new customers looking to borrow. Equally, some lenders have already withdrawn their base rate tracker level or increased it so as to eliminate any possible risk of losing more money. After such a huge single cut in rates, and looking at the action being taken, it makes you wonder if these lenders actually saw it coming!
So in short will it have any effect? Well may be not in the short term but I would like to think may be even hope that over the coming months this recent reduction will find its way to the pumps as it were. If it doesn't and doesn't soon then all I can say is in the immortal words of Dads Army, We're all doomed, doomed I tell you. Let's hope not hey?
The question is, will this help both ourselves and the economy, both in the short and long term. I am afraid that my answer to this would have to be no, I can't see it happening. The reason behind this is that the lenders will be unwilling to pass on the 1.5% to the public because they were unable to pass on the previous rate cut either. To put it into perspective, their standard variable rate is still at the level that it was more than 6 months ago, go figure.
What has happened in both the UK and in the world markets is that, although the banks have indeed lowered their rates, the rates for funds from bank to bank have not decreased at the same level. The London inter-bank offered rate, or LIBOR as it is also known, is the rate at which the London financial institutions lend between themselves. Now whilst LIBOR has indeed decreased of late, it has not done so as much as the banks base rates. So although base rate drop would seem to help, it does not.
The LIBOR rate is dictated by the willingness of the institutions to loan money to each other. Due to the onset of the credit crunch and the fact that the poor lending policies of the institutions have come to light, there has been an unwillingness to lend between the institutions and this has a knock on effect on the LIBOR. They all know about each other's shoddy lending policies of the past and, due to the down turn in the economy, they do not want to expose themselves any further.
You might have thought that the huge injection of capital from governments both here and abroad would have oiled the system but let me tell you this is far from the case. I am unsure why, there are rumors that lenders have been told that as a condition of the injection they have to lend a set percentage more next year than this year and as such they are saving themselves for that mandatory position but who knows. All I know is there is very little money out there, what is there is at low loan to values and the rates are poor.
One thing the Bank of England's decision will more than likely do is raise confidence levels. The public will think that low interest rates mean that things are on the up. However, they may soon realize that this is not actually the case when they see that their lenders are not passing on this decrease to them or to their mortgage payments. We should, however, see commercial finance improve as most commercial finances are set at a slight rate above the actual base rate. This should mean that deals done in the past should see a benefit from the drop.
Irrespective of that, a lot of commercial lenders have bumped up their over base rate level to preempt any new customers looking to borrow. Equally, some lenders have already withdrawn their base rate tracker level or increased it so as to eliminate any possible risk of losing more money. After such a huge single cut in rates, and looking at the action being taken, it makes you wonder if these lenders actually saw it coming!
So in short will it have any effect? Well may be not in the short term but I would like to think may be even hope that over the coming months this recent reduction will find its way to the pumps as it were. If it doesn't and doesn't soon then all I can say is in the immortal words of Dads Army, We're all doomed, doomed I tell you. Let's hope not hey?
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