TORONTO - BMO Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO) is cutting its posted rate for a five-year fixed closed mortgage.

The bank says starting Friday the rate for one of the most popular types of loans for homebuyers will be 5.59 per cent, down 0.1 percentage points.

Many homebuyers are able to negotiate a rate lower than the posted rate at a bank.

Interest rates are hovering around historic lows and the prospect of the Bank of Canada raising rates has been pushed back from the summer to the fall, the bank says.

Fixed mortgage rates are closely tied to the bond market and tend to climb when traders shift investment activity to riskier equity assets from bonds.