Royal Bank of Scotland has hiked mortgage rates for 200,000 of its customers, it emerged today. It is the first major signal that banks are ready to trigger what experts have called a 'mortgage timebomb' and start to pass on the rise in the cost of borrowing on wholesale money markets. RBS, which is 82 per cent owned by British taxpayers, has already ordered the increase of 0.25 per cent to 4 per cent on its RBS and NatWest-branded offset mortgages. The same change will impact on its 'One Account' range, which includes Virgin One, DirectLine One and NatWest One, from 1 May....Read more here--: Taxpayer-backed-RBS-NatWest-bank-hikes-mortgage-rates-200-000-customers