ECB cut's interest rates by 0.5%

Darragh29 · 08-10-2008 01:28PM #1

Sounds like a big cut to me, considering that all the increases in the last few years were 0.25%. Apparently most Irish banks will not be passing the cut onto customers...

Is there any chance that the banks are just playing poor mouth now and putting on the beal bocht to increase profits??? They have a guarantee from the state now, still no improvement, governments have been wheelbarrowing billions of Euro into the financial system, still no improvement. Now interest rate cuts that only benefit the banks, still likely no improvement...

Are we being taken for a ride here lads???

jaykay74 · 08-10-2008 01:34PM

Darragh29 wrote: »

Sounds like a big cut to me, considering that all the increases in the last few years were 0.25%. Apparently most Irish banks will not be passing the cut onto customers...

Is there any chance that the banks are just playing poor mouth now and putting on the beal bocht to increase profits??? They have a guarantee from the state now, still no improvement, governments have been wheelbarrowing billions of Euro into the financial system, still no improvement. Now interest rate cuts that only benefit the banks, still likely no improvement...

Are we being taken for a ride here lads???

afaik the guarantee is not in place yet as its not passed the dail yet and it needs clarification from european competition authority or whatever its called. I'd say most of the interest rate cut will be passed on.

I think its clear that its time for the money fight to recommence and to buy that 50" plasma that been put off these past 3 weeks or so. I will also purchase a number of knockdown properties.

Mylow · 08-10-2008 01:40PM

Darragh29 wrote: »

Sounds like a big cut to me, considering that all the increases in the last few years were 0.25%. Apparently most Irish banks will not be passing the cut onto customers...

They will pass it onto anyone with tracker mortgages.

thetyreman · 08-10-2008 01:40PM

Darragh29 wrote: »

Sounds like a big cut to me, considering that all the increases in the last few years were 0.25%. Apparently most Irish banks will not be passing the cut onto customers...

Is there any chance that the banks are just playing poor mouth now and putting on the beal bocht to increase profits??? They have a guarantee from the state now, still no improvement, governments have been wheelbarrowing billions of Euro into the financial system, still no improvement. Now interest rate cuts that only benefit the banks, still likely no improvement...

Are we being taken for a ride here lads???

If its a case that they dont pass it on,then i think the goverment should make them.If this guarentee by the govm hasnt got a load of small print/conditions attached to protect our guarentee for the banks,then yea it will be the banks that will be the only winners and they will shaft Jo Soap again,again,again.

ejmaztec · 08-10-2008 01:40PM

I've not heard any bank admit any kind of responsibility for the sh1t they've made. I thought it hilarious a couple of days ago, when the UK government was involved in formulationg a rescue package, and the big bankers, being impatient for a decision, suggested that the government get it's finger out without further delay in resolving the problem. The bankers really have got some neck.

Villain · 08-10-2008 01:41PM

Ah yea once the German's have a banking problem the ECB drops its rates, the German's have far too much power in this EU

Radharc na Sleibhte · 08-10-2008 01:41PM

Mylow wrote: »

They will pass it onto anyone with tracker mortgages.

I don't know what a tracker mortgage is.

Sorry

Radharc na Sleibhte · 08-10-2008 01:43PM

Villain wrote: »

Ah yea once the German's have a banking problem the ECB drops its rates, the German's have far too much power in this EU

Its all about zee Germans.
Once German inflation looks likes its on the way down and the German economy is fecked BAMMMM we get a half a percent cut.

ven0m · 08-10-2008 01:46PM

Makes no difference - Lenihan will be taking any gains from it back off us next month in the Budget.

It would have been better for the ECB to announce investigations into European banking practices, as well as issuing investigations into all share-olding bak directors who have profitted from government intervention schemes.

same old same old though ........ this news is nothing more than a smokescreen to stop people asking further questions of an industry that is long overdue providing answers for its behaviour.

LFCFan · 08-10-2008 01:47PM

would it not make sense for the ECB to lower it's rates significantly to try and kick start the European economy again? When the dollar was stronger and the ECB rate was really low, things were ticking along nicely. It's only since the ECB kept increasing rates that things started going belly up. Now that it's known what the biggest cause of all this ****e has been (the sub prime market in the US) then systems can be put in place to stop that happening again.

5starpool · 08-10-2008 01:48PM

Glad I have a tracker mortgage now. I'd prefer to have none, or a smaller one, but at least it is something.

Radharc na Sleibhte · 08-10-2008 01:55PM

5starpool wrote: »

Glad I have a tracker mortgage now. I'd prefer to have none, or a smaller one, but at least it is something.

+1
Few bob back i mo phoca.

whiskeyman · 08-10-2008 01:56PM

Darragh29 wrote: »

Are we being taken for a ride here lads???

No, but yore ma is!!!

This is AH btw...

Darragh29 · 08-10-2008 02:01PM

whiskeyman wrote: »

No, but yore ma is!!!

This is AH btw...

lol!

jaykay74 · 08-10-2008 02:05PM

Villain wrote: »

Ah yea once the German's have a banking problem the ECB drops its rates, the German's have far too much power in this EU

Alright, Mr. Burns…you win. But beware…we Germans aren’t all smiles und sunshine.

Villain · 08-10-2008 02:12PM

jaykay74 wrote: »

Alright, Mr. Burns…you win. But beware…we Germans aren’t all smiles und sunshine.

Oh I fecking know. I watched enough enough german p0rn to know that

jayo27 · 08-10-2008 02:15PM

how long before the banks pass on the cuts even to trackers?

Rainy Day · 08-10-2008 02:17PM

Trackers should benefit straight away I believe.

emmagean · 08-10-2008 02:33PM

LFCFan wrote: »

would it not make sense for the ECB to lower it's rates significantly to try and kick start the European economy again? When the dollar was stronger and the ECB rate was really low, things were ticking along nicely. It's only since the ECB kept increasing rates that things started going belly up. Now that it's known what the biggest cause of all this ****e has been (the sub prime market in the US) then systems can be put in place to stop that happening again.

couldnt agree more. when the interest rate rises began back in 2006 I was convinced it would slow down the housing market, which in turn would result in job losses etc, and thats exactly what has happened. A 0.5% cut is more than we hoped for, but I dont think it will help the housing market in the short term. If we see a series of 0.25% cuts over the coming months then I'm sure the property buying will pick up again. And seeing as the performance of our economy is directly related to the performance of the housing market, that can only be a good thing.

Of course I'm not a financial expert (quite obviously I'm sure!) and I could be totally wrong!! But its what I believe

Todays rate cut saves me €200 a month!
Looking forward to giving it all back to Mr. Lenihan from next Tuesday.

<rant>On a seperate note.....if the company I worked for messed up their finances like the present government has messed up the economy, they would have all been forced to resign. Instead, our leaders heap praises on each other and tell us all what a difficult job Mary Harney has and isnt she great for giving it a go! Only in Ireland......</rant over>

kayos · 08-10-2008 02:55PM

And of course most of the banks have pulled their tracker mortgage products now a days....

ven0m · 08-10-2008 03:06PM

LFCFan wrote: »

would it not make sense for the ECB to lower it's rates significantly to try and kick start the European economy again? When the dollar was stronger and the ECB rate was really low, things were ticking along nicely. It's only since the ECB kept increasing rates that things started going belly up. Now that it's known what the biggest cause of all this ****e has been (the sub prime market in the US) then systems can be put in place to stop that happening again.

The biggest cause was low interest rates in the U.S. markets, plus greedy lenders giving loans out to people who should not have been able to pass viability critera.

It also happened here where banks got super greedy along with developers, & this whole bail out here was really due to the sheer volume of developers who were within months of defaulting on huge loans for properties developed but not yet sold or placed on the market or even real estate not yet developed due to costs outweighing the 'accepted' levels of profitability.

barrymac20 · 08-10-2008 05:27PM

I was delighted to hear about interest drops the same as anyone else so i went onto the IIB website to see if there was any mention of it. The only thing i noticed was that they had put their own rates up by 0.2% from 01/10/08. Are they not supposed to inform customers of increases? Seems to me that they increased their rates so that a decrease in ECB rates will not only mean lower repayments by them but that repayments to them will be virtually unchanged! Disgrace. Did anyone else notice this?

Thomas_S_Hunterson · 08-10-2008 05:30PM

MikeySligo wrote: »

Its all about zee Germans.
Once German inflation looks likes its on the way down and the German economy is fecked BAMMMM we get a half a percent cut.

Bundesbank...ECB....same thing:p

Kinetic^ · 08-10-2008 05:46PM

barrymac20 wrote: »

I was delighted to hear about interest drops the same as anyone else so i went onto the IIB website to see if there was any mention of it. The only thing i noticed was that they had put their own rates up by 0.2% from 01/10/08. Are they not supposed to inform customers of increases? Seems to me that they increased their rates so that a decrease in ECB rates will not only mean lower repayments by them but that repayments to them will be virtually unchanged! Disgrace. Did anyone else notice this?

I've been with IIB for 3+ years now. I usually get a letter within a month of the ECB interest rate increase. I expect the same for the decrease. I'm on a tracker mortgage btw (I do know what a tracker mortgage is), I think it's going to save me just over a €100 each month.

Bluetonic · 08-10-2008 05:48PM

A lot of tracker mortgage T&C state that cuts do not have to be passed on in exceptional circumstances.

darsar · 08-10-2008 05:50PM

Rainy Day wrote: »

Trackers should benefit straight away I believe.

And of course my mortgage went out yesterday :mad:

Jimbo · 08-10-2008 05:52PM

Can someone tell me what is stoping the ECB reducing it's interest rate significanlty , say 1%, to kick start the markets again?

Villain · 08-10-2008 06:02PM

The ECB's primary function is to keep inflation low ideally below 2.5%, the eurzone average was near 5% but has come back down to near 4% now, the ECB has stated it would not drop internest rates until inflation was reduced even more but now that inflation is going down and banks are under pressure and the Germans are under pressure the ECB has been forced to act.

I wouldn't expect them to drop much more unless we see more banks folding, the downsize of this is the Euro will weaken against the Dollar which will increase the cost of oil to us in the euro zone

Bluetonic · 08-10-2008 06:05PM

BOI & Halifax will be effective Nov 1st.

Bluetonic · 08-10-2008 06:09PM

Villain wrote: »

I wouldn't expect them to drop much more unless we see more banks folding, the downsize of this is the Euro will weaken against the Dollar which will increase the cost of oil to us in the euro zone

Even if this is the case, the price of oil is decreasing as fear of a global recession grow stronger (near month trading at around 80USD). Also a stronger dollar (or weaker euro as the case is) will benefit Irish economic exports, the US being one of our most important exporters.

Villain · 08-10-2008 06:13PM

Bluetonic wrote: »

Even if this is the case, the price of oil is decreasing as fear of a global recession grow stronger (near month trading at around 80USD). Also a stronger dollar (or weaker euro as the case is) will benefit Irish economic exports, the US being one of our most important exporters.

Oh it will surely help exports, I was more thinking of affects on Joe Soap, although I think the Budget will make what ever positive affects of a .5% interest rate cut look very small. Worrying times ahead.

ECB cut's interest rates by 0.5%

Comments