British households are likely to be set for more financial pain, with interest rates likely to rise on their loans and mortgages money experts have warned today.
Some of Britain’s top banks last night suffered a downgrade in their credit rating by Moody’s the credit agency amid rapidly increasing fears of a financial meltdown in the Eurozone. The banks with downgraded credit ratings include Barclays, Lloyds, and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
Because of the ratings drop the banks will have to pay billions more pounds to secure their funds, unfortunately it is families who will ultimately pay the rise as the banks look to recoup their money.
Not just UK banks downgraded
It wasn’t just UK banks that got their ratings downgraded, Moody’s downgraded 15 of the world’s largest banks altogether as it becomes more concerned about the creditworthiness of banks. Some of the others downgraded are Bank of America, Citigroup, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Societe Generale.
Gary Greenwood from analyst Shore Capital said: ‘The UK banks are in a stronger position than their European counterparts – their liquidity and capital conditions are arguably better, but this proves that they cannot escape the problems in the Eurozone.’
Richard Lloyd who is executive director of consumer group Which? said: ‘This announcement will also lead to speculation that it will cause a further rise in mortgage rates.’
‘For too long banks have taken advantage of the lack of competition on the high street to increase the interest rates charged on mortgages, loans and overdrafts, with over one million consumers seeing their yearly mortgage payments increase by over £300 million with the standard variable rate rises earlier this year.’
‘This is why we cautiously welcomed the Chancellor’s recent “funding for lending” scheme. But we want to see strong safeguards in place to ensure that banks pass on this cheap credit to consumers.’