Banking

Ian Guider: Interest rate hikes will be a big bonanza for banks

There’s plenty of pain on the way for mortgage holders, but it’s likely to be a different story for our friends at the big banks

Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, will increase interest rates this month. Picture: Andreas Arnold/Bloomberg

Later this month, Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, will get to do something which her predecessor Mario Draghi never did: she will preside over the first increase in interest rates across the eurozone for 11 years.

The 0.25 per cent hike has been well flagged to financial markets in advance. Central bank policymakers in Europe are now catching up on what has been happening across the world: tightening monetary policy in ...