Westpac home loan rate strategy aimed at cross-sell

Westpac group executive for retail and business banking, Peter Hanlon, said most borrowers taking out home loans with the bank were taking the package rate at 6.06 per cent and not the full standard variable rate of 6.76 per cent.

Package loans are offered at a discount if customers take a transaction account, credit card and maybe insurance with the loan.

Hanlon said: "We are about building relationships with customers. Seventy per cent of customers buy on service and 30 per cent buy on price. Our focus is on the 70 per cent."

Hanlon and Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly made it clear yesterday that the bank's interest rate strategy, increasing its standard variable rate by 45 basis points last week in response to a 25 point increase in the official cash rate, is as much about marketing as cost recovery.

"Our strategy is to be a full service bank," Hanlon said.

Kelly said she was looking for more business with each customer. The bank has reduced its focus on mortgage brokers. The origination of home loans through brokers has fallen from 43 to 35 per cent during the year.

Kelly said: "Our focus is on first-party sales and deep customer relationships."