Banks come under pressure to cut rates

PRESSURE is mounting on banks to drop interest rates after Tánaiste Mary Harney said she would be “angry and disappointed” if they failed to pass on the full 0.5% cut announced by the European Central Bank to customers.

Opposition parties yesterday called on the new Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority to intervene to ensure bank clients were not being ripped off as a result of delays by the main financial institutions in matching the ECB interest rate cut.

All the main banks have so far held off on declaring whether they will pass on the full benefits of the latest reduction which has seen interest rates fall to their lowest levels in over half a century.