Bank Of England Rate Setter “Expects” Savers To Benefit From Interest Rate Rise

8 November 2017, 17:47 | Updated: 8 November 2017, 18:02

A Bank of England rate setter has told LBC he “fully expects” savers to benefit from the recent increase in interest rates.

Ian McCafferty was one of the seven out of nine members of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee who voted in favour of higher rates last week.

It means the official bank rate has been lifted from 0.25% to 0.5%, the first increase since July 2017.

There have been complaints that banks have passed on the rise to borrowers and not savers.

But, Mr McCafferty told Iain Dale on Thursday he “fully expects” those putting money away to benefit in the “fullness of time”.

He said: “Clearly it’s a competitive market, banks are competing for savers and what I’d encourage savers to do is to look at the market, use that competitive pressure and if their bank is not offering them the increase then look for another back that is.

“That will then force the banks to push through the bank rate rise.”