Canada's five biggest financial institutions increased their prime interest rates on Wednesday, shortly after the Bank of Canada increased its key interest rate for the first time in seven years. A bank's prime interest rate gets factored into a variety of loans, from variable-rate mortgages to lines of credit. Bank customers with loans based on the prime rate will see an immediate increase in their interest payments. Canada's major banks tend to keep their prime interest rates in lockstep with each other. The remaining four big banks made their prime rate announcements within 2½ hours of RBC's move.

Source: CBC News July 12, 2017 17:26 UTC