Minnows cut home loan rates

Four credit unions and three mortgage managers have cut some or all of their variable-rate home loans by 25 basis points, in the line with the cut in the RBA cash rate announced this week.

Big banks and other large lenders, however, have so far refrained from making and publicising any changes to rates, with the pricing intentions of major banks the subject of continuing conjecture.

Several commentators in metropolitan newspapers today speculated that big banks plan to limit cuts in home-loan rates to only a portion of the cash rate cut. One report, in the Australian Financial Review, says the big banks want to hold back all of it, though the report does not state that thi

Credit Union SA, the Police & Nurses Credit Society, Capricornia Credit Union and The University Credit Society were the four credit unions to make cuts in home loan rates, according to data compiled by interest rate monitor RateCity.

Mortgage managers taking this step were BMC Mortgage, Collins Home Loans and Hemisphere Financial, a retail brand for non-bank funder Resimac.

Two banks that did announce rate cuts on Tuesday were Bank of Queensland and ME Bank.