More than half of Australia’s banks and other lenders have defied the Reserve Bank and the Federal Government by refusing to pass last week’s full official interest rate cut to home loan borrowers.
Angry customers have been flooding mortgage brokers and loan advisers with refinancing requests since ANZ and Westpac started the trend by pocketing part of the RBA’s 0.25% rate reduction for themselves. An analysis by comparison website RateCity.com. au found 67 lenders had announced rate reductions since the RBA’s move on June 4, and 34 of them had not passed on the full 0.25%. More than 40 other lenders had not yet announced a move.
RateCity research director Sally Tindall says customers who have not received the full reduction have the right to feel ripped off — and also had the right to move their mortgage to another lender. Financial managing director Angelo Benedetti says many lenders had raised rates independently of the RBA in 2018, blaming it on increased costs of funding their mortgages.
“Now that funding costs have dropped, they haven’t fulfilled their obligations,” he says. “They’re double-dipping, which is not good. We are getting so many phone calls from clients asking to get them a cheaper option from elsewhere.” Read more.
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