The funding costs for GE Capital have declined over recent months, both the spread paid over benchmark and the benchmark rates themselves.This did not stop GE asserting yesterday that "the continuing high cost of funds on the wholesale money markets" was the reason for maintaining interest rate levels.The lower benchmark rates of relevance are, in Australia, the cash rate, which has fallen 375 basis points over three months, and the 90-day bank rate, which fell around 200 basis points over the same period. The reduced funding costs faced by GE, with reference to benchmarks, are even more pronounced over six months.The margin GE has had to pay for funding over the benchmark is more complex, but GE's cost of funding in Australia has still declined.At one stage late last year GE is said to have faced a spread over swap of 500 basis points to fund its Australian business. This spread is now down to 300 basis points or less.So there's been a reduction of four percentage points in the cost of funding GE's financial assets over three months.Documents lodged by GE Capital with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week show that, notwithstanding a most complex funding landscape last year, the cost of funds for the group declined over 2008 and that it expects the cost of funds to decline further over 2009.Yet GE has cut very little from interest rates on home loans in Australia. On data compiled by Money Zone the interest rate for the Wizard Smart Choice Loan was 8.49 per cent in early November. The rate remains at 6.84 per cent, a decline of only 1.65 percentage points.