British lenders have been summoned to meet the country’s treasury chief to try to reduce mortgage rates, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in an editorial published yesterday.
The meeting was called because cuts to the Bank of England’s base rate have not yet translated into cheaper loans for customers, Brown wrote in the News of The World, a mass-market tabloid.
The British leader promised new measures to make sure the lower rates were passed on to mortgage holders.
“Although the Bank of England has cut rates in recent months, the banks have not always been passing those reductions to their customers,” Brown wrote. “So [Chancellor of the Exchequer] Alistair Darling will be meeting with the main mortgage lenders to discuss what further steps can be taken.”
The news came a day after the chairman of Britain’s Council of Mortgage Lenders said lending could fall by half this year as bankers raised their prices to dampen demand. Banks have increasingly cut back on loans to customers amid worries of too much risky debt in the credit market.
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