Lloyds TSB and Abbey were last night alone in promising to pass on the one and a half percentage-point cut in base rates to homeowners.
The majority of high street banks and building societies responded to the cut with a scramble to prevent new borrowers from taking advantage of the Bank of England’s decision, hastily withdrawing almost all mortgages deals that are pegged to the base rate.
By last night every major lender had pulled their tracker deals with the exception of HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, the Cooperative Bank and a handful of small building societies.
Mortgage brokers said the full-scale withdrawal from the tracker market in a single afternoon was unprecedented.
The Times
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