Banks face pressure on rate cut

Many homeowners will benefit from a cut in the Bank rate
Banks and building societies are moving after pressure from MPs to pass on the latest cut in interest rates to their mortgage customers.
Some of the major lenders made an immediate decision to pass on the one percentage point Bank rate cut to customers with variable rate mortgages.
RBS/NatWest, which is majority owned by the government, will cut by 0.75 of a percentage point, it said on Friday.
The UK's biggest lender HBOS will only pass on 0.25 of a percentage point.
A spokesman for HBOS said the government had expected it to be run along commercial lines, which was what it was doing.
Initially, it seemed that customers on mortgage tracker deals with the Nationwide would see only a 0.25 percentage point cut in interest rates.
But late on Thursday the UK's biggest building society said it was passing on the full one percentage point cut to existing tracker customers.