What is a deposit beta?
A deposit beta is the share of a Bank Rate change your bank passes on to your savings. Here’s how it works, what UK banks pass on, and how to work out yours.
Oli Butcher, CEO, Riff
Published 23 October 2026 · Last reviewed 23 October 2026 · 5 min read
Short answer
A deposit beta is the share of a change in Bank Rate that a bank passes on to its savers. If Bank Rate rises by 1 percentage point and your savings rate rises by 0.3, your deposit beta is 30%. The FCA found the nine largest savings providers passed on 28% of the 2022-23 rises to easy access savers.
Where does the term come from?
It’s a term banks and their investors use when they talk about margins on results calls. It borrows from finance, where a beta measures how much one thing moves when another does.
The FCA and the Bank of England usually call it pass-through. Both mean the same thing: how much of a rate change reaches the customer.
How is it worked out?
Divide the change in your savings rate by the change in Bank Rate over the same period. An example, with made-up figures:
| Bank Rate | Easy access rate | |
|---|---|---|
| Before | 4.00% | 1.50% |
| After | 5.00% | 1.80% |
| Change | +1.00 point | +0.30 point |
0.30 divided by 1.00 is 0.3, so the deposit beta is 30%. The bank kept the other 70% of the rise.
Measure over months rather than days. Banks rarely move savings rates on the day Bank Rate changes, and some move in several small steps.
What did UK banks actually pass on?
The FCA looked at the nine largest savings providers in its 2023 Cash Savings Market Review. Between January 2022 and May 2023, Bank Rate rose by 4.25 percentage points. This is how much of that rise they passed on, on average:
| Product | Share of the rise passed on |
|---|---|
| Easy access savings | 28% (15% to 61% across the nine) |
| Notice and fixed-term savings | 51% |
| Standard variable rate mortgages | 89% |
A saver at the average large provider got just over a quarter of the rise. A borrower on the same provider’s standard variable rate got almost all of it.
Does it work the same way when rates fall?
Roughly, yes, and cuts have reached savers slowly too. Bank Rate was 5.25% in June 2024 and 3.75% after the decision on 17 September 2026, a fall of 1.5 points. Over the same period, the Bank of England’s average rate on households’ sight deposits fell from 2.11% to 1.65%, a fall of 0.46 points. That’s about 31% of the cut.
The Bank of England found the same. In August 2025 it said the pass-through of Bank Rate cuts to instant access deposit rates had been low, partly because so little of the earlier rises had been passed on, and partly because banks were competing for deposits.
So a low beta cuts both ways. Savers lose less when rates fall. But they gained little on the way up, so the rate they’re left with still sits well below Bank Rate.
The FCA is watching the other direction. It has said it will expect a clear explanation if a firm cuts savings rates significantly more quickly and fully than it raised them.
Why are deposit betas low?
A bank prices its easy access account for the customers who stay. Most people don’t check their savings rate often, and fewer move their money when a better rate appears elsewhere. If customers don’t move, the bank has little reason to pass on more.
Fixed-term rates tend to follow Bank Rate more closely, because people opening a fixed-term account are usually comparing rates.
None of this is a scandal. It’s their job. A bank answers to its shareholders as well as its customers, and every point it doesn’t pass on is margin. The FCA’s Consumer Duty now asks banks to show their savings rates give fair value, which has pushed some rates up.
How do I work out my own deposit beta?
- Find your rate now and a year ago. Your banking app or annual statement shows the rate on each account.
- Look up Bank Rate on the same two dates. The Bank of England publishes every change.
- Divide the change in your rate by the change in Bank Rate. That’s your deposit beta for the period.
- Compare it with the FCA’s 28%. If yours is well below that, it may be worth looking at what other banks and building societies pay. Our guide to easy access, notice and fixed-term accounts covers the trade-offs.
If Bank Rate hasn’t moved over the period, there’s no beta to work out. Compare your rate with Bank Rate directly instead.
Two things can throw the number off. Compare the same account and balance at both dates, and check whether a bonus rate ended in between. A bonus dropping off makes your beta look lower than your bank’s underlying pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Is a higher deposit beta always better for savers?
When rates rise, yes: more of the rise reaches you. When rates fall, a higher beta means your rate falls faster too. What matters most is the rate you’re earning compared with what’s available.
Does my bank publish its deposit beta?
Not to customers. Some banks discuss pass-through with investors when they report results.
Is my money less safe at a bank with a low deposit beta?
No. A deposit beta says nothing about safety. Eligible deposits are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000 per person, per authorised bank. See our guide to FSCS protection.
Sources
- FCA Cash Savings Market Review 2023
- FCA update on cash savings, September 2024
- Bank of England: Monetary Policy Report, August 2025
- Bank of England: Bank Rate maintained at 5.25%, June 2024
- Bank of England: Interest rates and Bank Rate
- Bank of England effective interest rates, June 2024
- Bank of England effective interest rates, August 2026
- NatWest Group FY22 results call transcript
- FSCS: deposit limit
This guide is general information, not financial advice. Rates and rules change, so check the latest position before you act.