Banks lower long-term mortgage rates
Three of the country's major banks have followed Kiwibank's lead in reducing two-year home loan rates.Kiwibank's lead in cutting two-year fixed home loan rate has been matched by three of the major banks.Westpac, National and ANZ have all reduced their tw
Georgina Bond
Fri, 02 Jul 2010
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Three of the country's major banks have followed Kiwibank's lead in reducing two-year home loan rates.
Kiwibank's lead in cutting two-year fixed home loan rate has been matched by three of the major banks.
Westpac, National and ANZ have all reduced their two-year rates by at least 20 basis points to 7% or just below.
ANZ and National have also reduced their three, four and five-year rates. ANZ's five-year rate is now the lowest in the market at 7.75%
Kiwibank undercut its rivals yesterday in lowering its two-year fixed home loan rate from 7.30% p.a. to 6.99%.
Outgoing chief executive at the state-owned bank Sam Knowles said the rate cut was to provide longer-term certainty to customers who were concerned about interest rate volatility.
HSBC has adjusted its rates in the opposite direction, lifting its standard two-year rate from 6.49% to 6.74% - still the lowest in the market.
The market range for two-year rates now range between 6.74% to 7.4%
Most of the major banks have adjusted interest rates since the Reserve Bank raised the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.75% a fortnight ago – the first rise in the OCR since July 2007.
Most of the changes so far have affected floating rates and six-month and one-year fixed rates.
Georgina Bond
Fri, 02 Jul 2010
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.