Halifax has apologized after sending emails to customers falsely claiming that the Bank of England had hiked interest rates.
Some mortgage customers received a message on Tuesday stating: “The Bank of England’s base rate has changed today”.
However, the central bank’s decision on a rate hike will not be made until Thursday afternoon.
The lender later followed up with a second email, apologizing to customers for “any confusion” it caused.
It added that the email had been prepared ahead of Thursday’s decision by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) “so that if there is a rise, we could advise customers quickly and help them understand how this is playing out.” affect their mortgage”.
“We are emailing customers today to apologize and confirm there are no changes to their mortgage or rates,” they added.
Halifax, one of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders, declined to tell the BBC how many of its customers had received the email.
It is understood that some Lloyds customers also accidentally received the message.
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As part of the Lloyds Banking Group, Halifax told customers with a fixed-rate mortgage that their repayments would not be affected by an increase.
When interest rates rise, it can make borrowing more expensive, especially for homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages.
Prices are now rising in the UK at their highest rate in 30 years as coronavirus restrictions ease and consumers spend more.
One of the tools available to the Bank of England to curb inflation, which measures how prices change over time, is by adjusting interest rates.
In March they were raised from 0.5% to 0.75% – the highest level since March 2020 as the Bank of England tries to rein in rising prices and meet its 2% inflation target.
The next announcement from the nine UK economists who make up the MPC is due on Thursday at 12pm.
Ruth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, said that with inflation hitting 30-year highs and further rising energy bills later this year, the bank may be “enough worried” to hike interest rates again.
Investec economist Philip Shaw also said he believes interest rates will rise to 1.0%.
He pointed out that price pressures had increased beyond energy and food in areas such as clothing, furniture and housing, stoking the bank’s concern that inflation could last longer than initially thought “particularly against the backdrop of a historically very tight labor market”. could.
“Of course it should be recognized that raising interest rates will do very little to dampen inflation over the next six months and that the aim of policy tightening now is to prevent inflation from staying above 2% over the medium term and the credibility of the central bank,” he added.
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