The research from credit score website TotallyMoney dug into the SVRs currently being charged by the UK’s largest high street lenders.
Here’s how the 15 largest lenders shape up on SVR, with Virgin taking top spot with 9.49 per cent.
| Rank | Lender | SVR |
| 1 | Virgin Money | 9.49 per cent |
| 2 | Metro Bank | 8.75 per cent |
| 3= | Barclays | 8.74 per cent |
| 3= | Lloyds Banking Group | 8.74 per cent |
| 3= | TSB | 8.74 per cent |
| 6= | Leeds BS | 8.24 per cent |
| 6= | Yorkshire BS | 8.24 per cent |
| 8 | Co-op Bank | 8.12 per cent |
| 9 | Bank of Ireland | 8.04 per cent |
| 10 | Nationwide B S | 7.99 per cent |
| 11 | NatWest | 7.74 per cent |
| 12 | Santander UK | 7.50 per cent |
| 13 | Coventry BS | 7.49 per cent |
| 14 | HSBC | 6.99 per cent |
| 15 | Skipton BS | 6.79 per cent |
SVRs have taken on a growing importance in recent months as base rate has been hiked repeatedly. According to figures from UK Finance around 679,000 residential mortgage customers are currently on an SVR ‒ the equivalent of around eight per cent of the market ‒ with a further 800,000 mortgage deals set to mature during the second half of 2023.
Lenders have responded in different ways to the increases to base rate. TotallyMoney found that while some have passed on the full 5.15 percentage points rate hike since November 2021, others have opted to pass on as little as 2.15 percentage points.
Five lenders were found to have matched the hikes from the central bank: Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Virgin Money, TSB and Metro. At the other end of the scale, Skipton BS has imposed the smallest increase of 2.15 percentage points, followed by Leeds BS (2.95 percentage points) and Coventry BS (three percentage points).
Alastair Douglas, CEO of TotallyMoney, said that borrowers rolling off of an introductory offer and onto the SVR could be in for a real shock, with their monthly repayments increasing sharply.
He continued: “With the cost of living still rising, and unemployment growing, more needs to be done to customers whose deals have, or are about to end. What’s more is that estimates suggest there’s around 200,000 mortgage prisoners who are effectively locked into SVRs and unable to escape. We’ve already seen a jump in mortgage defaults, and banks need to be proactive in providing support.”
