More banks lower mortgage rates

By | 17/03/2011 1:00:00 PM More of Canada’s big banks say they will lower some of their fixed rate mortgages as nervous investors move to bonds, causing a drop in long-term interest rates.

As of Thursday, TD Bank, National Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Scotiabank, Desjardins Group and Laurentian Bank had all made mortgage rate change announcements.

TD Bank, CIBC, Laurentian, Desjardins and National Bank say their fixed five-year closed rates will drop to 5.34 per cent, effective Thursday, while Scotiabank’s will be 5.29 per cent.

The move follows similar announcements from Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal Tuesday.

Four-year rates will fall 0.15 percentage points to 4.99 per cent at all eight.

Fixed mortgage rates, which are closely tied to bond markets, tend to fall when traders shift investment activity from riskier equity assets toward bonds, which are considered safer.
Investors have been jittery over fears that a potential nuclear disaster in Japan could severely derail the global economic recovery.

In February, many of Canada’s big banks moved to raise their fixed mortgage rates as investors grew more confident about investing in equity markets and the global economy appeared stronger