ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES : Many Borrowers Are Looking for Trickle-Down Effect : * Consumers’ view: It is cheaper for banks to borrow cash, but they have not passed savings to users of credit cards and car loans.
The government has pushed interest rates to their lowest levels in many years. Right? But many consumers are not feeling it, except in lower monthly savings account statements or in mortgage payments if they recently bought or refinanced a home.
Rates most banks offer on automobile and personal loans have barely budged. And credit card rates, the interest rate that affects the broadest range of consumers, hardly ever move, making for the widest gap now that anyone can recall between what banks pay for money and the interest they charge people to maintain unpaid credit card balances.
The stickiness of some rates has rekindled criticism from consumers, who are unhappy that the drops in interest rates do not necessarily translate immediately to lower loan rates. Ken McEldowney, executive director of Consumer Action in San Francisco, complains that the stickiness of many rates, combined with tighter lending standards, is thwarting the Federal Reserve Board’s efforts to push rates lower, get consumers to spend and stimulate the economy.
The cost banks pay for money, as reflected in average rates paid on one-year and five-year certificates of deposit, dropped from 2% to 3% since early 1989, according to statistics from Bank Rate Monitor in North Palm Beach, Fla. But rates for new-car loans have dropped less than 1%, while average rates for personal loans and credit card loans have actually increased slightly.
Consumer groups allege that lenders are hoping to boost their sagging profits by widening the “spread” between what they pay depositors for their funds and loan rates. The pressure, they allege, is more intense because of losses on bad real estate loans, and regulators are leaning on banks to boost capital, or their financial cushion.
“Any time you have falling rates, it’s a chance for institutions to widen their spreads,” said Hugo H. Ottolenghi, Bank Rate Monitor’s editorial director.
But lenders and other experts counter that the market is far too competitive for lenders to conspire to keep rates artificially high on loans.
“As long as one bank out there is not constricted on its cash flow, the rest of the banking system can’t play that game,” said Randall Pozdena, vice president of banking and finance for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
Some rates, such as mortgages, are falling fast. A survey this week by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, shows fixed-rate mortgages averaged 8.92%, the lowest in nearly 14 years. Adjustable rate mortgages, lenders averaged an initial rate of 6.83%, the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking them in 1984.
“Our mortgage rates are dropping weekly,” Chemical Banking Vice Chairman Edward O’Neal said.
Lenders and others also argue that the “pricing” of credit card and other loans reflects the risks lenders believe they are taking. In addition, credit cards require significant service and processing costs by the lender.
Since credit card loans are effectively unsecured loans, they cause more losses in balances that are never paid off, something that is made worse by the current recession. Banks are not unfairly setting their overall loan rates, some experts argue, relative to the risks they are taking.
“When you have an industry with a return on equity of 8%, it’s hard to say they are price gouging,” said Lowell L. Bryan, a senior partner with McKinsey & Co. who specializes in banking.
Some loan rates change only at prescribed times. Adjustable-rate mortgages change every six months to one year, so some consumers have yet to see big changes in monthly payments. In addition, 11th District Cost of Funds Index, the index most ARMs are tied to in California, usually lags several months behind general interest rate trends.
Credit card rates rarely change, with most lenders charging between 18% to 20% now. Lenders generally don’t face a great deal of pressure to lower rates, in part because a large number of users pay off their balances monthly or because changing cards is considered troublesome. Card issuers also have found that for many uses, the annual fee charged is the most important concern.
Nonetheless, some major credit card issuers, such as AT&T; and Chemical Bank, have cards tied to the prime rate. Chemical’s O’Neal said the move was made in May not to attract new cards, but to encourage people with several credit cards to use Chemical’s.
Despite competition from variable-rate cards, consumer advocates don’t believe that credit card rates are likely to come down soon. “Banks already have such a healthy market share that the loss in income from dropping interest rates would more than offset the profit they would make from getting new customers,” Consumer Action’s McEldowney said.
Borrowers
