Analyst believes the banks will raise interest rates

Illustration: Percent.Photo: pixabay.com

Norges Bank left interest rates unchanged, but analysis manager in Swedbank still think that banks are going to raise mortgage rates.

Although the central bank hasn’t adjusted its interest rates during the past six months, money market rates have risen since the summer, reports the newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.

‘The Norwegian banks are going to raise rates on mortgages. The arguments for it are good’, said analysis manager Pål Ringholm in Swedbank.

He pointed out that it has become more expensive for banks to borrow the money that finances mortgages.

Nordea has already increased the lending rate by 0.2 percent. The leader of Sparebank1 SMN has indicated that he’s consulted a think-tank, but firstly, other banks are sitting the on the fence, including Norway’s largest bank, DNB.

‘One of the last things Sparebank1 managers will want is to lose market share. But they can’t take themselves too little money’, explains Ringholm.

DNB chief executive Rune Bjerke won’t comment on his bank rates for mortgages, but reminds us that it is important to have a buffer.

‘I just want to offer general advice to mortgage customers: don’t assume you will have such low interest rates as now for a long time. It’s important for everybody to have something to survive on to be prepared for fluctuations in mortgage rates’, says Bjerke.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today