Banks - including the UK's biggest lender - are under growing pressure today to reduce their interest rates in line with the Bank of England's massive 1.5% cut.

Yesterday the Bank stunned the City by opting for the biggest rate cut in more than 50 years, at a time when the base rate is relatively low.

Lloyds TSB immediately announced it was following suit - though it is constrained by a pledge to keep its rates within 2% of the Bank of England's base rate - and by the end of the day Abbey had done likewise.

Halifax, the UK's biggest lender, said yesterday whether it was to pass on the 1.5% cut was "under consideration" as politicians clamoured for banks to toe the line in return for the billions of pounds the Government has pumped into propping them up in the aftermath of the credit crunch.

Banks, though, are wary of committing themselves to interest rates cuts while the Libor (the London Interbank Offered Rate) - the rate at which banks lend to each other - remains high and while jitters persist following the recent financial turmoil.

Following yesterday's announcement, around 30 lenders pulled their range of the tracker loans, which automatically move up and down in line with the Bank of England base rate, for repricing.

And experts fear banks will not pass on all of the interest rate cut to customers - if they did, some homeowners could save up to £230 a month.

The key rate that homeowners want to see reduction in is the Standard Variable Rate (SVR), which is supposed to fluctuate in line with the Bank of England's base rate.

But unlike tracker rates, this does not automatically happen - the onus is on the banks to cut their rates as the Bank of England does. Banks tends to be quicker to respond to Bank of England rate hikes than cuts.

A spokeswoman for Halifax said: "We have not made a decision yet. It is still under consideration."

Two out of every five UK households are Halifax Bank of Scotland customers but one financial expert warned it would not automatically pass on the reduction.

Jonathan Davis, director of financial advisors Armstrong Davis, said: "What you have to remember is the banks nationally and globally have lost hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of pounds.

"Most of the banks will cut their variable rates but I'm not sure if they are going to cut them the whole 1.5%.

"They will want to claw back a little bit of profit and the banks will use all they can to shore up their reserves even if it takes them years and one way is not passing on the full cuts to borrowers."

Among the 30 who withdrew their tracker deals yesterday were Halifax, Nationwide, Abbey, Barclays' lending arm the Woolwich and Lloyds TSB.

A number of other lenders had previously hiked their tracker rates by up to 0.8% ahead of today's base rate cut.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, said: "We will have to wait several days before we see them re-emerge and know by how much lenders have hiked their rates above base rate."

Mr Boulger predicted the number of lenders who reduce their SVR by 1.5% will be in single figures.

The 1.5% cut would provide some much needed relief for hard pressed homeowners, reducing the monthly cost of a typical £150,000 mortgage by £138 to £887, based on a new rate of 5%.

People who are heavily mortgaged with a £250,000 loan would see their repayments drop by £230 a month, or £2,757 a year.

Homeowners with fixed rate mortgages, who account for around half of all secured borrowers, will not see a change to their repayments, as their mortgage rate is fixed for the term of the deal.

Yesterday Lloyds TSB, which also lends under the Cheltenham & Gloucester brand, said it was reducing its SVR rate by 1.5% to 5% from December 1.

It was later joined by Abbey, which is also passing on the full 1.5% reduction to SVR customers.

Also yesterday, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced a 0.5% rate cut.

Last night the Bank of Ireland confirmed it will pass on that cut in full to its customers.