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Responding to the half-point cut to the Bank of England’s base rate, financial solutions company Think Money (www.thinkmoney.com) welcomed its already noticeable impact, and pointed to the implied likelihood of future cuts.

“There’s no question that we’re facing extraordinary issues today, both globally and nationally,” a Think Money spokesperson commented. “As a company, we were pleased to see the Bank of England taking this step – not just dropping the base rate, but dropping it by a substantial amount.

“Furthermore, we’re delighted to see major mortgage providers passing that reduction on to consumers. After so many months of negative news, this could make a big difference to many homeowners’ financial circumstances, as their variable rate mortgages drop from 7% to 6.5%.”

Anyone with a tracker mortgage, meanwhile, is sure to enjoy lower payments at once: The Times predicts immediate benefits for around 4 million people paying home loans that track the Bank’s base rate. ‘Those with a £150,000 mortgage’, it reports, ‘will see their interest-only repayments fall by £63 a month’.

“The same goes for other kinds of credit,” the spokesperson continued, “from secured loans to credit cards: people with tracker deals will certainly profit from the cut, and borrowers with SVR deals will be following their lenders’ reactions closely.”

New fixed-rate loans could also drop in price. “Now that the cost of credit has come down, lenders will be able to pass the savings on, giving their customers a better deal without placing their own profits in jeopardy – something which could have a profound impact on their stability at a time like this.

“Looking beyond the actual cut,” the spokesperson stressed, “it’s equally important to consider the implications – not just what the deal means, but what it says about the Bank of England’s assessment of our economy. First, the cut reveals how seriously it is taking today’s financial troubles. Second, it implies that the Bank is feeling more comfortable about inflation.”

As stated in the Bank’s news release about the rate cut: ‘The recent intensification of the financial crisis has augmented the downside risks to growth and thus has diminished further the upside risks to price stability’.

“In other words, today’s financial crisis has become more of a threat to the nation’s GDP – but on the plus side, slowing growth does tend to slow inflation too. The Bank may well have liked to postpone the base rate cut until inflation came down closer to the 2% target, but given the choice between letting the economy deteriorate and losing some ground in the fight against inflation, it chose the latter.”

As for the months ahead: “The latest BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index (SPI) for the UK reveals that annual shop price inflation shrank to 3.6% in September, down from 3.8% in August. It’s encouraging to see inflation on the way down, particularly as it gives the MPC more leeway when it comes to future base rate decisions. Various influential bodies are calling for the Bank to make further cuts to the base rate – and there’s reason to hope it’ll be able to do that.”

Barclays is to open a new flagship branch at Piccadilly Circus in London’s West End.

The three-storey building – formerly occupied by Burger King – covers more than 10,000 square feet adjacent to the world famous Piccadilly lights. Work will begin straight away to develop the building into a branch containing the latest designs and technologies, scheduled to open at the end of this year.

Erin Biertzer, Distribution Services Director for Barclays, said: “We are full of pride to be moving into a site as significant as Piccadilly – one of the most iconic locations in the world – and we will do it proud with a branch worthy of the setting.

“Branches are important to us and to the millions of our customers who use them each week. For that reason we are investing to make them more accessible and comfortable and, crucially, making it simpler for customers to do their banking with us in a way that suits them. Barclays at Piccadilly is going to really break the mould and it is very exciting.”

Earlier in 2008 Barclays opened a flagship branch in Manchester and work has already begun on developing 50 further ‘flagship’ branches across the UK as well as refurbishing the entire branch network (currently 1733 branches). The design of these branches has been developed over the last two years at a warehouse in Northampton and has involved extensive staff and customer consultation. New features will include full self-service zones, open counters without glass partitions, new technology to minimise queuing and, at selected branches, longer opening hours including Saturday and Sunday opening.