BNZ has now revealed its response to the -25 bps OCR cut that the Reserve Bank announced on Thursday.
They are following ANZ's lead and only passing on -5 bps to their customers on a floating rate.
This changes its rate to virtually the same as offered by Westpac, and almost 40 bps higher than the rate offered by Kiwibank.
“At BNZ we strive to get the balance right to meet the needs of our customers,” said Craig Herbison, BNZ’s director of retail and marketing. “There are a range of factors that influence whether bank increases or decreases its interest rates and the OCR is one of those. Other considerations are costs, the volatility of offshore markets and the requirement to hold greater capital. We are pleased to be able to offer an increase in the 18 month term deposits for savers.”
“The majority of our customers are on fixed rates, which are often lower than the rate card for floating, or are offsetting their floating rate with our TotalMoney home loans. Now is the time for people with home loans to take advantage of the lowest rate in a generation and come and talk to us about paying off their mortgage faster.”
BNZ's announcement is salved by a +30 bps rise in their 18 month term deposit offer. (Details here.)
See all banks' carded, or advertised, home loan rates here.
| Floating | Prior rate | New rate | Change | effective from |
| % | % | % | for existing clients | |
 |
5.64 | 5.59 | -0.05 | 29 August 2016 |
 |
5.65 | 5.55 | -0.10 | 24 August 2016 |
 |
5.69 | 5.64 | -0.05 | 29 August 2016 |
 |
5.45 | 5.25 | -0.20 | 29 August 2016 |
 |
5.75 | 5.65 | -0.10 | 31 August 2016 |
 |
5.45 | |||
 |
5.75 | |||
| ICBC | 5.60 | |||
 |
5.69 | 5.54 | -0.15 | 18 Sept 2016 |
 |
5.54 |
Mortgage rates
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18 Comments
Mortgages are voluntary. I really don't get some of the whinging regarding mortgage rates, they ARE at record lows and have been for quite some time. Banks making a huge profit off us all? surprise surprise! They have been doing that since their creation.
Clearly if interest rates went back to 8% many people would be screwed.....
Filthy bankers! Truly taking the piss.
BNZ - "Now is the time for people with home loans to take advantage of the lowest rate in a generation and come and talk to us about paying off their mortgage faster"
C'mon - Pass on the full OCR cut you greedy monopolistic bankers and then we can pay off mortgages even faster.
Absolutely no excuse for profit taking and widening their margins - cost of offshore funding has dropped - swap rates are under 2% for most terms ie record lows and banks making record billions
No wonder there is no competition between the banks - look at how they all have common ownership here:
http://blog.creditcardcompare.com.au/big-four-ownership.php
I have pointed this out before - this conclusion is ignorant of how bank trust departments work. Those 'ownership' diagrams are only for consiracy types. The fact is bank trust departments hold these share for other beneficial owners, most probably big [US ?] mutual funds. And one bank may hold in trust these holdings for many such mutual and hedge funds. Charts like this are meaningless (a bit like the naive claim that the RBNZ 'owns' Fletcher Building). Before you spread such rubbish, you a) need to read the article in full, and b) do some simple research about bank trust departments.
This is nonsense and ignorance. Look at the owners of every global public company - you will see the same bank trustee or nominee shareholders.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/streetname.asp
The fact that banks are holding on to most of the ocr cuts should sound alarm bells regarding their future profitability and also future fumding of mortgages since we dont save enough to self fund our own mortgage funding requirements. Yup its a slow slide to a depression. Watch out by xmas if the milk prices dont recover, that will see the rockstar economy enter rehab
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