One week on from base rate: How has the savings market reacted?

From building societies to digital providers, which banks have passed the latest base rate increase on to their savers?

Last Thursday the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to increase the base rate to 4.25%. This marked its 11th consecutive uplift and came as inflation unexpectedly rose to 10.4%.

In addition, it addressed concerns over the UK banking sector’s health after the turmoil at Credit Suisse. Describing the sector as “resilient”, the Bank of England also said: “The UK banking system maintains robust capital and strong liquidity positions and is well placed to continue supporting the economy in a wide range of economic scenarios, including in a period of higher interest rates.” 

This latest increase was subsequently passed on to several variable savings accounts.

According to Moneyfacts data, the rate on the average easy access account rose from 1.91% last Thursday to 1.93% today. Meanwhile, the average easy access ISA rose from 2.11% to 2.14% in the same period.

Below Moneyfactscompare has listed some of the providers which have or are set to pass on the latest increase to their variable savings accounts.

On Tuesday, Santander increased a variety of its variable accounts by 0.10 percentage points.

This included its Everyday Saver, an easy access account, and its Easy ISA, the ISA equivalent. Both pay 0.70% AER after the increase. 

On Saturday, the Spanish-founded bank made an increase to its eSaver Limited Edition (Issue 1), which now offers 3.25% AER for its existing customers.

Meanwhile, Yorkshire Building Society (YBS), Coventry BS and Leeds BS are also set to increase some of their variable rates.

YBS is expected to pass on its 0.25 percentage point rise to its accounts on 5 April while Coventry BS will do so a day earlier.  

“We’ve consistently passed rates on to our customers to keep our minimum savings rate as high as possible across the range,” said Chris Irwin, Director of Savings at YBS.

He then said YBS’s rates were 0.56% above the market average last year, which resulted in an additional £199 million it had passed on to its savers.

As for Coventry BS, this will be the 10th time it’s increased its variable savings rates since the beginning of last year.

“From early next month, we’ll be offering rate increases to 99% of variable balances which will be a welcome boost for new savers and those that have been with us a long time,” said Ian Biggs, Head of Product Performance at Coventry BS.

Leeds BS has already increased some of its rates by 0.10 percentage points. Its Access Saver, Blue & Amber (Issue 8), E Saver, ISA Saver and E-ISA all now pay 1.80% AER.

As for some digital providers, Atom Bank and Chase both confirmed that they’d be increasing their variable rates last week.

After announcing the increase Aileen Robertson, Head of Savings at Atom Bank, made note that those loyal to big name brands could be earning more elsewhere.  

“We can see from the latest results of the big five banks that only £5bn of their £12bn interest gain flowed back to depositors, further evidence that rate rises have been used as an opportunity to boost profits,” she said.

Robertson then described the 0.55% AER offered on some easy access accounts as a “measly return”, especially with the base rate at 4.25%. In comparison, Atom Bank’s Instant Saver now offers 3.20% AER after its increase.

Chase, meanwhile, will up its rate on its saver account to 3.10% AER on 3 April.

“We want to help savers make their money work harder while providing a simple and straightforward way to save,” said Shaun Port, Managing Director for Everyday Banking at Chase.

Paragon Bank made a 0.36 percentage point increase to its Triple Access Cash ISA the day after the base rate increase.

Since the increase it has been a constant mention in our daily updates of the best ISA rates on the market.