As investors bet that banks will benefit from rising rates,CBA said interest rates for both owner-occupiers and investors would increase by 0.25 percentage points,and the changes would take effect from May 20. ANZ is lifting variable home loan rates by the same amount,but its changes take effect earlier,on May 13. Westpac is also moving by 0.25 percentage points,and its changes take effect from May 17. NAB announced it lifting its variable home loan rates by 0.25 percentage points,effective from May 13.
CBA’s group executive for retail banking,Angus Sullivan,acknowledged rate rises would be new to some borrowers and pointed to options including fixed-rate loans.
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“This is an important time to support customers as some may not have experienced an interest rate increase since they took out their loans,” Sullivan said.
“We are here to help customers who have loans and are considering how repayments might change. Some options available to help our customers manage repayments include fixing or splitting loans or setting up an offset account.“
CBA’s standard variable rate for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest will increase to 4.8 per cent as a result of the changes.
Westpac’s chief executive of consumer and business banking,Chris de Bruin,said the lender would also lift some of its deposit interest rates by 0.25 percentage points. CBA and ANZ did not announce any changes to deposit rates.