Cartels do not earn their stripes without cartel behaviour.National Australia Bank yesterday said it would not reduce interest rates on home loans by the 25 basis point cut in the cash rate decided yesterday by the RBA.The bank patted itself on the back in its media advisory announcing an unchanged rate of 5.74 per cent. Between September 2008 and today, NAB passed on more of the RBA rate cuts than any other major bank, the bank said.A strange point to make at a time the bank is seeking to act as knowing leader in a carefully coordinated cartel - the most effective of its kind in Australia.Speeches, interviews, media releases and the like are the stock in trade of the bank executives taking turns as first mover on key products as banks realign prices.Commonwealth Bank cut by 10 of the 25 bps, taking its rate to 5.64 per cent.Like NAB, CBA cited an effective increase in funding costs, where the pricing is still problematic, from a lender point of view, in wholesale and retail markets.The refinancing of wholesale debt at drastically increased margins is continuing. In retail markets term deposits are a competitive category at the moment as banks seek to attract money from investors who got set a year ago at around eight per cent and now have to tolerate returns of three or four per cent (with a few misleading offers of more than five per cent around).The only other rate cut announcement of minor note was by Aussie Home Loans cutting the rate on its ANZ-funded MasterCard by 25 basis points.ANZ and Westpac have to clarify their pricing position on home loans and other loans today, and will in turn allow the long tail of other lenders to work out their pricing.