It claimed that, as of 15 January, 11 building societies had removed either some or all of their fixed rates deals since the Bank of England upped the Base Rate to 5.25 per cent, and not replaced them.
Moneyfacts also questioned the reasoning behind this, and accused lenders of potential profiteering.
Julia Harris, mortgage analyst at Moneyfacts, said: “Has there been a flurry of customers snapping up these ‘cheap’ deals, causing the societies to exhaust their tranches of fixed rate funds? Or could it be an opportunity to re-price, allowing a larger profit margin?
“With a further rate rise still on the cards, consumers on a tight budget will need to act quickly before more of the current best-buy fixes vanish.”
Moneyfacts said many lenders had moved quickly to increase their SVRs and predicted that short-term fixed rates under 5 per cent could soon disappear as the money markets increase rates.
However, lenders may deter this by increasing fees to offset the costs.
Peter Charles, group economist at Bradford & Bingley, commented: “There’s a lot of uncertainty in the market, especially for small building societies. They can’t take so many risks, so can’t sell without hedging the risks involved. Swaps have gone up a lot in the last week so societies are waiting for the markets to fall before launching new products.”
