BoI to raise mortgage interest rates to counteract rising borrowing costs

BANK of Ireland is to raise interest rates for mortgage holders, to counteract its own rising borrowing costs.

No timeframe has been set, but the move is likely to be made sooner rather than later and the bank has also disregarded talk of any blanket industry-wide debt forgiveness solution for mortgage holders who are unable to meet their repayments.

Bank of Ireland’s financial results for the first half of this year, which were published yesterday, showed a 30% year-on-year increase — to €140 million — in impairment charges relating to its Irish residential mortgage book; a rise attributed to higher unemployment levels, lower disposable incomes, falling house prices and “the general economic downturn in Ireland”. The impairment on the total Irish and British mortgage book was up by €17m year-on-year to €159m.