According to Independent research published today by SavingsChampion.co.uk 

• 77% of building society variable rate accounts pay more than base rate, compared to 55% of banks
• Bank variable rate ISAs have seen interest rates nearly halve in five years
• Bank easy-access account rates down by more than a third in five years
• Average variable rate paid by building societies is 1.19% compared to 0.88% on similar accounts by banks

Susan Hannums, Director at Independent Savings Advice site Savingschampion.co.uk says: “Building societies and challenger banks continue to show their support to savers in the form of better rates. While the challenger banks work to entice new savers, the building societies work to keep their existing ones. The challenger banks are bucking the trend and without them the bank’s figures would be even worse!
 
“It is clear that the traditional banks have little interest in encouraging existing or new savers to put more money with them, as the rates on offer continue to fall dramatically despite no movement in the Base Rate. For those savers who have an account with a traditional bank, it would be worth seeing how much better off they could be by switching.”

Full content of the press release can be found here: