Our latest reader's poll showed that 45% of those who voted said they thought banks in New Zealand were profit gouging. There were 642 votes in all. We welcome any suggestions for further polls. A new one has been put up and is on the right hand side of the blog. The question was: Do you think the banks are 'profit gouging' by not passing on the recent OCR cuts to floating mortgage borrowers? Yes. The politicians have suggested they are. The RBNZ wants them to pass on more. Of course they are gouging. 45% - 288 votes. No. The banks' foreign funding costs are up strongly. They are raising term deposit rates to keep savers happy. No they're not gouging. 31% - 201 votes. I don't know who to believe. Something's not right, but I trust politicians even less than the banks. 25% - 153 votes. Here is a link to our original piece on the Finance and Expenditure Committee's report. There is more here. Also, here is a link to a piece done on Tuesday by Westpac economists, dismissing the FEC report and recent comments by the Reserve Bank. Your views?
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