Birmingham Midshires

[hra]

Rates for Birmingham Midshires' 1-year savings bond have dropped from 5.61% to 5.00% since June 2004. (At one stage, briefly, they even offered 5.7% or so).

Granted, fewer institutions are betting on substantial interest rate rises than was the case last summer (to say the least), the general trend in savings bonds yields has been down, and in fact it is now not easy to get more than 5.3% or 5.4% anywhere else but is the Birmingham Midshires an extreme case?

They do offer a 7.5% 1-year bond but it is a sweetner to tie up an equal sum in a 5-year FTSE tracker yielding 90% of any rise over the period.

I did hear somewhere that they were exposed to BTL lending and am wondering what effect this has had. They used to be one of the more aggressive savings institutions but are now merely competing.