Bank of England "gives" banks £50 billion.

Yesterday the Bank of England announced it would give UK banks £50 billion in exchange for mortgage backed securities.

It was a move designed to put more money into the financial markets.

However it is somewhat of a u-turn for the Bank of England & its governor Mervyn King who denied it would not do anything liek this a few moths ago. The bank has basically bought assets that nobody else wanted on the financial markets.

It should be noted that the big 5 banks made profits of £30 billion in the last year despite making some rather large mistakes.

Bank of England lowers Interest Rates

The Bank of England yesterday lowered interest rates to 5%.

Will this mean lower mortgage interest rates?

Hmmm...it depends

1 Lenders had priced in the likely decrease into new tracker/discounted mortgages. it's like when supermarkets put up drink prices in November to claim a massive drop just before Christmas
2 Some organisations are not passing on the full 0.25% drop, with Nationwide you may only get a 0.12% drop.
3 Other banks are "reviewing rates within the next 2 weeks"

100% Mortgages Withdrawn

Abbey became the final large lender to withdraw 100% mortgages this week.

Prior to the credit crunch, borrowers were able to borrow up to 125% of the property value. Like other riskier types of borrowings such as sub-prime mortgages, product providers have removed these loans from their books.

it will casuse probelems for 2 types of lenders

1 First time buyers who don't have a deposit.
2 Buyers who took out 100% mortgages in the good times and now won't be able to get a new remortgage deal especially those on interst only mortgages. Their mortgages are likely to increase considerably.