Bank of Montreal cuts its five-year fixed mortgage rate to 4.79 per cent

TORONTO - The Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) has cut its five-year fixed mortgage rate by 20 basis points to 4.79 per cent.

The bank has also changed a number of its other fixed mortgage rates, including its low- rate five-year mortgage, which also went down 20 basis points to 3.09 per cent.

The rate for a 10-year fixed mortgage went down 65 basis points to 6.10 per cent, while the 10-year low rate declined 85 basis points to 3.84 per cent.

The changes take effect Saturday.

On Jan. 27, Canada's biggest lenders reduced their prime lending rates, which influence variable rate mortgages and other products, to 2.85 per cent from three per cent.

That was in response to the Bank of Canada's surprise move to cut its overnight lending rate to 0.75 per cent from one per cent. However, the commercial banks passed along only some of the savings from the central bank's policy move to their customers, shaving their prime rates by 15 basis points instead of the full 25.