State-owned banks desert borrowers
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The majority of state-owned banks are failing to offer competitive fixed rate mortgage deals, figures from Moneyfacts show.
Between March 2009 and March 2010 two-year fixed deals from Cheltenham & Gloucester, Halifax and Northern Rock stayed above the 4% mark, with Northern Rock and Halifax offering rates above 5%.Some state-owned lenders such as the Royal Bank of Scotland fared better, offering deals from 3.27% to 4.04%.
Michelle Slade, analyst at Moneyfacts, says it was hoped that the state-owned banks would be at the front of the queue in unlocking the mortgage market but this has not been the case.
She says: “Some state-funded banks appear to be placing a higher priority on getting out of government ownership than helping customers who have supported them with competitive rates.
“In the past year only a handful of mortgage lenders have promoted their products to increase their share of the market, and it is these lenders that come out best in our survey.”
She adds: “Unless more lenders become willing to lend the mort-gage market is likely to continue to stagnate.”
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