A Bank's Hand: Hold, Raise or Fold

A potentially pivotal time for so many people and retail banks – old and young, legacy and digital – on the mortgage/borrowing/savings front:

• Saver rates are only inching higher with instant access ‘everyday saver’ accounts from big-name legacy incumbents offering between 0.7% and 1.35% - Proactive / Which?
• Santander launches Edge Up for retail customers paying 3.5%. Goodbye 123 accounts.
• NS&I raises its Premium Bonds prize fund rate to 3.7%, the highest level in 15 years. Odds of winning remain the same: 24,000-to-one. Marcus raises rates on online savings account to 3.75% - Goldman Sachs

However …

• Fixed-rate UK mortgages are expected to rise to 6.5% - Capital Economics
• An estimated 800,000 fixed-rate mortgages are expected to expire in the next six months & 1.6m next year – Daily Telegraph
• This past weekend there were 199 products on offer for would-be UK home buyers wanting to borrow up to 95% of the value of the property – that’s down on 347 at the start of June a year ago - Moneyfacts Group plc
• In New Zealand, the government just announced an inquiry into its banking sector amid concerns that lenders are making excessive profits – 彭博资讯
• The big five banks posted profits of around ￡37bn for 2022 - The Guardian
• The Chancellor is meeting the UK’s big lenders this Friday to assess the state of the UK mortgage market – Financial Times
• “The one good bit of news out there is the courts are so clogged up, it’s going to be virtually impossible to repossess anyone for 18 months. I mean, isn’t it awful that we are looking at that as a bright spot.” – MoneySavingExpert.com 's / @MartinSLewis