Bank of England · GBP · Pass-through 90% over 2 months
Average historical spread mortgage − policy rate: 1.80pp. Current spread: 1.80pp. Roughly in line with the long-run average.
Where the typical fixed mortgage rate ends up if the futures-implied policy path holds and the historical spread reverts to its long-run mean.
The four tiles at the top show the live policy rate (set by the central bank), the interbank rate, and the typical fixed and variable mortgage rates available to a household in this country. The gap between the policy rate and the mortgage rate is the spread — what the lender adds on top to cover funding, credit risk and profit.
The first chart shows that spread over the last five years. When the shaded area widens, banks are charging more on top of the policy rate, usually because the long bond market has moved or because banks are pricing in extra risk. When it narrows, competition or central bank bond-buying is squeezing margins. The second chart — the implied 12-month forward path — takes the current futures market's bet on where the policy rate is heading, applies the historical spread, and shows where your mortgage rate would land if both relationships hold. It is not a forecast: it is what current market pricing already implies.
The mortgage-minus-policy spread decomposes into four primary drivers. First, the funding curve: jurisdictions whose lenders fund predominantly via covered bonds (Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden) inherit the swap-plus-covered-spread basis, which moved from 5-15 bp pre-2022 to 25-50 bp during the ECB's APP/PEPP unwind. Lenders funded via deposit franchise (UK, Australia) anchor more to short-rate transmission and deposit beta. US lenders sell loans into agency MBS pools, so the spread is sensitive to the primary-secondary MBS basis and to Fed SOMA reinvestment policy.
Second, prepayment optionality and convexity: products without economic prepayment penalty (US 30Y, Danish callable bonds) trade at OAS rather than nominal spread; OAS widening during rate volatility regimes (VIX-Treasury MOVE comovement) bleeds straight into the borrower rate. Penalty-protected European products (German Festzins under §489 BGB, French indemnité de remboursement anticipé) carry minimal optionality premium. Third, lender duration mismatch: if the dominant local product is short-fixed (UK 2/5Y) the lender's asset-liability gap is small and the spread is stable; if long-fixed (US 30Y, German 10Y) lenders rely on swap and MBS markets to hedge duration, and spread widens when those hedge markets stress. Fourth, regulatory caps and capital treatment: France's taux d'usure, prudential LTV/DTI floors (Switzerland, Australia, Canada), and Basel III risk-weight differentiation across LTV buckets all alter the marginal cost of lending and feed back into quoted rates with lags of one to three quarters.
| Month | Implied Policy Rate | Projected 2-Year Fixed (75% LTV) | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07 | 3.75% | 5.55% | +1.80pp |
| 2026-08 | 3.79% | 5.57% | +1.78pp |
| 2026-09 | 3.93% | 5.64% | +1.71pp |
| 2026-10 | 3.93% | 5.68% | +1.75pp |
| 2026-11 | 4.05% | 5.76% | +1.71pp |
| 2026-12 | 4.16% | 5.85% | +1.69pp |
| 2027-01 | 4.16% | 5.90% | +1.74pp |
| 2027-02 | 4.16% | 5.93% | +1.77pp |
| 2027-03 | 4.16% | 5.95% | +1.78pp |
| 2027-04 | 4.16% | 5.95% | +1.79pp |
| 2027-05 | 4.16% | 5.96% | +1.79pp |
| 2027-06 | 4.16% | 5.96% | +1.80pp |
O Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) do Bank of England define a Bank Rate — a taxa paga sobre as reservas dos bancos comerciais. A Bank Rate ancora a SONIA (Sterling Overnight Index Average), o benchmark pós-LIBOR para a libra esterlina. O Reino Unido tem a transmissão hipotecária mais rápida entre as economias do G7, por três razões:
O resultado: uma mudança de 25 pontos-base na Bank Rate se traduz em ~20 pontos-base de variação na taxa hipotecária média efetiva dentro de 2-3 meses, a maior taxa de repasse (pass-through) entre os sete bancos centrais acompanhados aqui.
A tabela no topo da página mostra a fixa de 2 anos vigente (75% LTV, o benchmark mais cotado), a SVR, a SONIA e a Bank Rate. Note que a SVR é estruturalmente elevada — ela reflete a taxa discricionária do credor, que capta os mutuários que não buscam ativamente outras opções. A fixa de 2 anos “anunciada” é o que os novos mutuários efetivamente pagam.
O spread da fixa de 2 anos frente à Bank Rate teve média de aproximadamente 0,75 ponto percentual desde 2010, mas oscilou dramaticamente durante 2022-2023:
O spread da SVR frente à Bank Rate é estruturalmente muito mais amplo — tipicamente de 2-3 p.p. — porque as SVRs não são negociadas ativamente.
A trajetória implícita usa os futuros de SONIA de 1 mês (ICE) para derivar a Bank Rate esperada em cada reunião futura do MPC. A fixa de 2 anos é então projetada aplicando o spread histórico, suavizado por um alto fator de repasse (0,90) e uma defasagem de transmissão curta (2 meses), refletindo a natureza responsiva do mercado hipotecário britânico.
Se o mercado estiver precificando mais flexibilização por parte do BoE, a fixa de 2 anos projetada deve cair de forma praticamente correspondente. Se o mercado precificar manutenções, a fixa deve permanecer estável. Compare com as probabilidades das reuniões do Bank of England para o panorama detalhado reunião a reunião.
Veja a página do Bank of England para as probabilidades das reuniões do MPC e o Monitor da Curva de Juros para o contexto dos gilts.