How much do their responses differ from one another?
National Australia Bank is the latest to announce that it will pass the RBA’s rate rise in full to customers, joining fellow Aussie banking giants Westpac, CBA, and ANZ.
This means that all four major banks will pass the 0.50% rate hike, which takes the official cash rate to 0.85%.
“We are here to support Australian households who may be concerned about their home loan repayments. We encourage customers to contact us to discuss the options available to them including ensuring offset accounts are set up and linked to their eligible home or investment loan,” said CBA group executive, retail banking, Angus Sullivan.
Alongside the new home loan variable interest rates, which will take effect on June 17, CBA has also announced increases to bonus interest rates for select savings products – GoalSaver and Youthsaver – by 0.50% p.a.
“Our decision today reflects the domestic and global environment, including changes to official cash rates,” said NAB group executive personal banking Rachel Slade. “We have 930,000 home loan customers and we are here to support them as interest rates rise. The cost-of-living is also increasing and our message to any of our customers who may be concerned is that we are here to help.”
ANZ had a similar message for its customers.
“ANZ is here to help and for customers seeking more information about how to manage their finances, we have a number of ways to support them, including a free home loan check-in that can help them reorganise their loan so it continues to meet their needs,” said ANZ group executive Australia retail, Maile Carnegie. Explaining that ANZ had considered various factors in making its decision to pass on the cash rate, Carnegie added: “Many of our customers remain in a good financial condition to manage rate rises with about 70% ahead on repayments. A large number of them have built up buffers after not changing their repayments when rates reduced over several years.”
Macquarie Bank has also passed on the rate in full for variable home loans from June 17.
