Mortgage defaults to increase warns BoE

The Bank’s latest Credit Conditions Survey suggests secured lending to households and small businesses has fallen considerably during the final quarter of 2007 as lenders re-assess their risk profile. Some analysts say the gloomy outlook for the UK banking sector could prompt further interest rate cuts by the Bank of England. The report says a net balance of lenders reported a material reduction in the amount of secured credit they were willing to make available to households during the fourth quarter of 2007. The Bank says the most likely reason for this is lenders reducing their risk a...