LONDON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- British bankers had to be strong-armed by Chancellor Alistair Darling into passing along a Bank of England interest rate cut to consumers, sources say.
The bankers, some of whom have been helped by the British government with taxpayer-funded capital injections to help cope with the credit crisis and mortgage meltdown, balked at passing along the central bank's Thursday 1.5 percentage point interest rate cut, the Sunday Times of London quoted unnamed sources as saying.
Now bankers are saying they won't pass along any further cuts, complaining their profit margins are being squeezed and warning Darling they are "not charities," the newspaper said.
"Base rates are now so low that our margins are desperately small," one unnamed bank executive told the Times. "This point was made quite clear to the chancellor by several of the executives -- we are not charities."
A Treasury spokeswoman described Darling as being "firm" with the banks at Friday's meeting.
"They all agreed to pass on all, or at least nearly all, of the rate cut to their customers," she told the newspaper.
