Commonwealth Bank has increased fixed home loan rates for terms from one to five years by 140 basis points, comparison site RateCity reported. Its one-year rate is now 4.99 per cent, two-year rate 5.79 per cent, three-year rate 6.39 per cent, four-year rate 6.59 per cent and five-year rate 6.69 per cent. At the same time, it cut its lowest variable rate product, Extra Home Loan, by 15 bps to 2.79 per cent for loan-to-valuation ratios up to 70 per cent and 2.89 per cent for LVRs between 70 and 80 per cent. APRA has revoked Citigroup Pty Ltd’s authorised deposit-taking institution licence, following the sale of Citi’s Australian consumer banking business to NAB. The A$1.2 billion deal was completed last month. At March 31, Citi had mortgage balances of $8.8 billion, an unsecured loan portfolio (largely made up of its white label credit card business) of $3.95 billion and deposits of $9.4 billion. About 800 Citi employees, including senior management, will join NAB. As of today, 1 July, the new Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 2021 comes into force, and the bank's new statutory governance board takes up the reins, as part of the strengthening of the bank’s decision-making and accountability arrangements. It is a shift to a "more conventional board model" that brings the RBNZ in line with other central banks, Crown Entities and public companies in New Zealand, said Finance Minister Grant Robertson. The members of the board are Professor Neil Quigley and Susan Paterson (both retained from the previous board, plus Rodger Finlay, Jeremy Banks, Professor Rawinia Higgins, Byron Pepper and Hinerangi Raumati-Tu’ua. The number of Australians switching banks is set to double this year, according to a report on intentions among APAC bank customers by RFI Global on behalf of FICO. In the online poll of almost 13,000 retail banking customers (1000 in Australia), one in 12 Australian banking customers said they would consider switching banks in search of the most competitive banking deals (8 per cent, up from 4 per cent last year). And amidst an uncertain "post-pandemic" financial climate, where a quarter of APAC respondents (27 per cent) saw their incomes decline, deferred loan repayments as a result of COVID-19 were less common in Singapore (12 per cent), Australia (9 per cent) and New Zealand (7 per cent) in contrast with their peers in India (31 per cent) and Thailand (47 per cent). Nonetheless, many Australian respondents (27 per cent) still consider the proximity of branches and ATMs as a top determinant for choosing their main banking provider.