Why is Skipton increasing its SVR?
David Cutter, chief executive of Skipton, says increasing the SVR will help the society’s 850,000 savers – the “forgotten victims of the credit crunch”. He adds: “”Our duty for 157 years has been to act in the long-term best interests of all our members – savers and borrowers. With base rate expected to remain low for some considerable period, we have reviewed our low SVR.” Like many banks and building societies, Skipton is reliant on savers’ money for funding, and needs to compete with other providers in order to attract new customers. Cutter also points the finger at government-backed National Savings & Investments, which in the past year has offered some market leading savings accounts. This, he says, has driven up the cost of retail funding to an “unprecedented level relative to mortgage rates”. Will other lenders change their SVRs too? Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, mortgage channel manager at moneysupermarket.com, believes other lenders could follow Skipton’s lead and increase their
