West Bromwich building society back in action
Despite nearly failing earlier this year the West Bromwich building society is back in action and competing in the bond market. The Society has issued a number of fixed rate savings bonds and is top of the tables for one, two and five-year bonds with rates of 3.9%, 4.45% and 5.45% respectively. After a very difficult few months which saw the society convert just under £200 million of debt into cash it seems as though the West Bromwich is now alive and kicking again.
The fact that the society was downgraded by credit rating agency Fitch was a major blow and has to some extent forced the group to compete in the fixed-rate savings market as a way of attracting cheap finance. There is no doubt that the recent launch of various savings bonds has gone down well and has attracted the attention of many consumers and savers across the UK.
On the downside, more and more UK savers are ill at ease locking their money away for more than three years with expectations that UK interest rates could move substantially higher if the UK economy takes off and recovers in the short term. This is certainly a very difficult situation for financial institutions and savers alike.
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