ANZ cuts home rates to match RBA, moves early

Australia CEO Phil Chronican told BlueNotes the new rate would be effective on Thursday 12 February and will be 5.63 per cent per annum, saving home borrowers about $60 per month or $750 per year for the average home loan of $300,000.

"Importantly the effective date for this change … is a full eight days earlier than most of our major competitors and I think that’s an important customer benefit."
Phil Chronican, CEO ANZ Australia

“We’ve decided to move our standard variable rate for home loans down by 25 basis points which is the same as the movement in the Reserve Bank’s official cash rate,” Chronican told BlueNotes managing editor Andrew Cornell.

He acknowledged the many “moving parts” behind rate decisions could be confusing but emphasised both the rate and when it took effect were important for customers. Chronican said banks were always looking at the cost of their funds which included not just the RBA rate but other funding such as wholesale debt and deposits.

“We’ve tried to have a more open discussion with the community about bank funding costs,” he said.

“It’s true that wholesale funding costs have eased a little bit over the last year or so and that’s taken a little bit of the pressure off.

“Importantly the effective date for this change will be 12 February which is a full eight days earlier than most of our major competitors and I think that’s an important customer benefit.”