HSBC mortgage steady against base rate

HSBC mortgage lending figures reveal it to be the only top ten lender that has not increased its margins over the Bank of England (BoE) base rate since July 2000.

HSBC mortgages are renowned for the fact that they will never exceed the base rate by more than one per cent.

Carina Kemp, HSBC's head of mortgages, said: "Within seconds of the last cut in base rate we announced that we would pass the full 0.25 per cent reduction on to our borrowers, reducing our variable rate to 5.50 per cent.

"This is lower than the standard variable rate (SVR) of any other top ten mortgage lender and thanks to our price promise, we can guarantee that our Homebuyer rate will never exceed base rate by more than one per cent."

The HSBC mortgage promise not to exceed the base rate by more than one per cent applies to the life of the mortgage and is effective within a month of any adjustments to the base rate.