Halifax, which was Britain's largest mortgage lender before the credit crunch, wrote to borrowers telling them that it was increasing the cap on its standard variable rate (SVR) from 3 percentage points above Bank Rate to 3.75 points in three months' time. If it then acted to move its rate up in line with the cap, around a million borrowers would end up paying 4.25pc on their mortgage as opposed to 3.5pc. While the lender said its move was not an indication that it would raise the rate itself, brokers believe otherwise and suggested that this would soon happen for a million Halifax borrowers. What's more, rivals are ... (full story)