Canada’s prime rate fell to 3.45% today for the first time since July 2018.
This is good news for floating-rate mortgage holders and those with Home Equity Lines of Credit or regular lines of credit. And it’s all thanks to Canada’s big banks passing along the full 50-bps rate cut delivered by the Bank of Canada yesterday.
Many were expecting the banks to keep some of those savings for themselves to shore up their own balance sheets, but RBC Royal Bank led the way yesterday evening by announcing the full 50-bps reduction to its prime rate. The rest of the country’s big banks quickly followed suit, save for National Bank of Canada (as of this posting).
Another exception is TD Bank’s mortgage prime rate, which remains 15 bps higher at 3.60%, as opposed to its regular prime rate of 3.45% that applies to Home Equity Lines of Credit.
2 Things you should do
1 Check your LOC Payments
2 Check your mortgage Payments, if you are on Variable