Major banks in Australia may be looking for ways to minimise potential PR problems by declaring the need to increase home loan rates.
John Collett at the Sydney Morning Herald, said that several bank chiefs in the country, including Gail Kelly of Westpac and Ralph Norris of Commonwealth Bank have spoken out and said that they may soon increase home loan rates independently of the Reserve Bank’s cycle.
Mr. Collett noted that this method has been a way of “softening up” the public by offering explanations about higher funding costs after the global economic crisis.
“Perhaps doing this through the media will reduce the chance of a repeat of last time around when Westpac went alone,” said Mr. Collett, referring to December 2009 when Westpac suffered a PR disaster after increasing its SVR by 45 points following an increase of RBA by 25 points.
Mr. Collett stressed that the dominance of “the big four” banks in the country will likely make an immanent independent rate increases, so therefore, he urged borrowers to compare mortgage in search of more competitive deals.