Halifax raises rates

Halifax has become the latest lender to raise some of its mortgage rates in response to the ongoing credit crunch taking place across the globe.

Britain's largest lender has, like Abbey earlier this week, announced that it is to increase rates on some of its tracker mortgages for new customers by 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent.

The news comes as the Northern Rock was forced to apply for emergency funding from the Bank of England in order to finance further lending. However,
the bank is not expected to go bust and customers have been reassured by industry analysts.

"Like anyone else, we can't buck the market," commented a Halifax spokesperson.

"We've seen lenders move to increase their rates this week: pricing has changed in the market so we've had to move and increase our rates too," they added.

Bank of England governor Mervyn King, meanwhile, has said that the Bank would not bail out investors but did not rule out an interest rate cut further down the line.


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