BoI ‘cannot rule out’ hike in mortgage interest rates
Mr Boucher told yesterday’s sitting of the Joint Oireachtas finance committee that the bank — which last month upped its standard variable mortgage rate by 0.5% to 4.3% — has “no current plans” to raise its rates any further, but “cannot rule it out for the future”. “The cost of money will be a key driver,” he said.
Mortgage demand had been muted during the first half of this year, but had picked up since June, he said, with Bank of Ireland attracting 40% of the new business flow. He said the bank has 16,000 mortgage customers with restructured loans and over 80% of them are meeting revised arrangements.
