RBC cuts five-year fixed mortgage rate, other banks expected to follow.
Royal Bank of Canada has become the first of the major banks to lower its posted interest rate for five-year fixed-term mortgages, a move that has been widely anticipated amid tumbling bond yields.
The bank lowered its featured five-year mortgage rate on Wednesday to 3.74 per cent from 3.89 per cent. Other big banks did not immediately match the rate, but mortgage expert Robert McLister, founder of mortgage-rate comparison website
Ratespy.com, said others will move soon.
He said alternative lenders who compete with the big banks have already been lowering their rates for weeks, giving them a slight advantage in the market. Mr. McLister anticipates the major banks will settle their featured five-year fixed rates at about 3.64 per cent in coming days.
He said some big banks have already lowered their internal “discretionary” rates on five-year fixed terms for preferred clients, but RBC is the first big bank to lower its publicly posted rate since August last year.
The move comes as the yield on five-year Government of Canada bonds has fallen sharply since November. Banks base their fixed mortgage rates on government bond yields.
Five-year bond yields have fallen from a recent high of 2.46 per cent on Nov. 8 to 1.93 per cent as of Wednesday, a decline of more than half a percentage point.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/inv...mortgage-rate-other-banks-expected-to-follow/