Coventry Building Society, Santander, Barclays and NatWest were the first lenders to pass on the Bank of England’s 0.25% rate cut to borrowers, after today’s Monetary Policy Committee (MCP) unanimous vote.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney made his feelings clear today on how he expects banks to react to the interest rate cut. “Banks have no excuse for not passing on this rate cut,” he warned in his press briefing on the Inflation Report.

Coventry BS were the first out of the block to communicate their plan to pass on the full cut to variable-rate mortgage borrowers.

Santander swiftly followed with the news that it would apply the full reduction to its Standard Variable Rate (SVR). From the beginning of September 2016, Santander’s SVR will be 4.49%. The Alliance & Leicester SVR on mortgages will also be reduced by 0.25% to 4.74%.

The lender has assured its borrowers that all mortgage products linked to base rate will move in line with the reduction. These new rates will be used to calculate mortgage repayments with effect from the beginning of September.

Barclays plans to follow the same strategy by reducing all base-rate tracker mortgages and its SVR by the full 0.25%.

Later this afternoon, Virgin Money also promised to pass on a 0.25% cut to its SVR customers on 1 September.

And Nationwide announced it will pass on the full cut to borrowers on its trackers, its Base Mortgage Rate and its Standard Mortgage Rate.

NatWest is currently reviewing whether it will make any changes to variable rate products and will provide an update ‘in the near future’. However, customers with base rate-linked products will see their rates reduce by 0.25%.

Lloyds Banking Group has pledged to reduce its variable rates that track the Bank Base Rate by 0.25% from September, but is still reviewing its stance on SVR customers.

Andrew Montlake, director of adviser Coreco, told sister website Mortgage Solutions: “Mark Carney has pulled no punches in his message to lenders after finally delivering on his promise to cut rates. It will be a brave lender who ignores the pressure he has now put on lenders to pass on the rate cut to consumers immediately, telling them that they have “no excuses”.