Banks lower floating mortgages to follow OCR cut

Banks have been quick to respond to the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate cut this morning.

The central bank lowered the official cash rate to 2.5% from 3.0% this morning in attempts to help lessen the economic impact of the Christchurch earthquake.

ASB Bank reduced its variable lending and on call savings account interest rates to 5.75%.

The new variable interest rate for home loans will be effective from March 11 for new borrowers and from April 4 for existing borrowers.

Last week ASB lowered its fixed home lending rates and also its term deposit and term fund interest rates to reflect changes in wholesale funding rates.

Westpac reduced reducing floating mortgage rates for retail and business customers by 0.5 points to 5.60% and and 6.24%.

The rates are effective from tomorrow for new customers and from Thursday, March 31 for existing customers.

Westpac reduced its Westpac fixed mortgage rates last week, meaning it now had fixed and floating rates below 6%.

Kiwibank has cut its floating interest rates by 0.50 percentage points to 5.65 percent. The cut is immediate for new customers and effective in two weeks for existing customers.

Kiwibank cut its fixed rates last week in anticipation of the change in the cash rate.

BNZ has reduced its floating mortgage rate by 0.5% to 5.59% and its six-month, fixed rate by 04.5% to 5.85%.

National Bank has cut its floating mortgage rate by 0.5% to 5.74% and fixed rate by 0.55% to 5.65 -- effective March 14 for new customers and March 29 for existing customers.

ANZ's floating rate has been reduced 0.46% to 5.74% and the fixed rate has been reduced 0.55% to 5.65% -- effective March 28.

HSBC has cut its floating home loan rate by 50 basis points effective from March 28.

Georgina Bond
Thu, 10 Mar 2011

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Banks lower floating mortgages to follow OCR cut