interest paid on savings accounts and on fixed deposits of up to 12 months.

The interest rates paid on other long term fixed deposits and plans remain unchanged. The rate change is effective today.

Mortgages with maturities of less than 15 years will receive a quarter percentage point reduction. The reduction will only be applied to mortgages that are not behind in payments.

"The Federal Reserve has cut US interest rates twice in the last few weeks,'' company managing director James Gibbons stated. "Accordingly, we must review what we charge on our mortgages and what we pay out for our deposit products.

Consistent with this trend, we have decided to lower interest rates on our short-term products and mortgages. However, we will still maintain the rate for our long term products.''