However, if incomes fail to rise, pushing borrower debt to salary (DTS) ratios up above 40%, the impact of an interest rate rise would mean greater numbers having to take financial action.
Financial action includes cutting spending, working longer hours or asking for a change to mortgage terms.
However, with the markets pricing for the next rate rise in late 2015 and any further rises in gradual increments, the debt to mortgage ratio picture is healthier than in 1991. The bank said the greatest risk is that incomes will not rise in step with interest rates.
Results showed 37% of borrowers, which is 12% of all households would need to take action if interest rates rose by 2%, which falls to 4% or 1.3% of all households if incomes rise by 10% over five years.
Assuming a 10% increase in income and a 2% rise in interest rates, the number of households in the vulnerable category with a debt to service ratio of over 40% would rise from 360,000 to 480,000.
Meanwhile, leading fund managers remain far more cautious than the Bank about rate rises suggesting the next will not come until 2016 at the earliest.
More investors are now pushing back their own internal forecasts following recent volatility and weak data.
