If you feel like you’ve listened to the mortgage banker for 20 minutes and understood nothing, you’ve done well. Most people find that the more they hear, the less they actually understand. Because with SIBOR, Board Rates, and Fixed Deposit loans all working differently, it’s not surprising that confusion abounds. Here’s a simple, straightforward take on what this all means:

	SIBOR loans	Board Rate loans	Fixed Deposit-pegged loans
Interest rate decided by:	The median interest rate between local banks	The bank	The interest rate of some of the bank’s fixed deposit products
Volatility:	Rate typically changes every one month or three months	Depends on how your bank wants to behave	Relatively low, as banks don’t change their fixed deposit rates too often
Biggest risk:	SIBOR rates are affected by many variables, such as the US economy	The bank can do anything it wants to the interest rate	This is ultimately still a type of board rate, the bank can still do what it likes (see below)

...