Bank of Queensland and CUA have joined the growing list of small mortgage lenders raising their variable mortgage rates. BOQ said it would increase the variable rate on its home loan products by 18 basis points, effective from November 20. CUA is increasing variable rates on some of its mortgages by 13 bps for owner-occupiers and 19 bps for investors. Its Rate Breaker package rate is not included.At the same time it cut the variable rate on its Fresh Start Basic Variable loan by 14 bps, taking the rate to 3.99 per cent (effective November 24).CUA chief executive Rob Goudswaard said in a statement that CUA held much higher levels of capital than the majors and that its return in equity in the 2014/15 financial year was 6.2 per cent.BOQ and CUA join ME, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Macquarie, Suncorp Bank, Citibank, Firstmac in following the lead of the big banks and raising variable mortgage rates.