JERSEY Home Loans are facing criticism from local borrowers, who say that the company are using their interest rates to put pressure on the States to allow them to open as a ‘bank’ in the Island.
Borrowers are questioning why JHL have been able to offer fixed rates as low as 3.88% to tempt existing tracker customers away from their mortgages while continuing to offer standard variable rates of 7.35% to the majority of their other customers.
Until now, JHL have insisted that they have been unable to reduce their variable rates to any customers in Jersey because the States would not allow them to operate as a deposit-taking ‘bank’ in the Island. The managing director of JHL, Rob Proctor, has hit back at the claims and said it was not their intention to use the situation politically.
Mr Procter (pictured) said that he found this ‘offensive’ and has turned on Jersey’s authorities and accused them of being ‘blinkered, protectionist and anti-competitive’. He said: ‘Unlike your politicians, who appear only to care about Jersey’s international reputation and the interests of a handful of banks, rather than the domestic market and the concerns of ordinary Jersey residents, we remain committed to Jersey and our existing customers.’
