More NZ banks hike loan but not deposit rates

More banks have followed the price leadership shown by ASB Bank in hiking floating home loan rates but so far no bank has raised deposit rates.

A central bank rate hike should typically be reflected in higher borrowing and lending rates but only short-term and variable home loan rates have seen a hike to date, and longer-term mortgage rates have actually fallen.

Yesterday, ANZ National and Westpac announced a 25-basis-point increase in variable home loan rates, and also increased their six-month mortgage rate.

Both the banks also followed ASB in lowering rates on longer-term mortgage rates, with Westpac, for example, cutting its two-year mortgage rate by 15 basis points.

TSB Bank is among the other major banks to hike variable and six-month home loan rates, and lower longer-term fixed home loan rates.

Interestingly, no major bank has so far announced any hike in deposit rates for any tenure. BNZ, in fact, lowered its rate on five-year fixed deposits last week.