Australian borrowers are facing more challenges, with big banks considering whether to follow the latest move by ANZ bank to increase standard variable interest rates outside the Reserve Bank’s cash cycle.
In a move to ease the country’s “high cost of funding”, ANZ has lifted its standard variable mortgage rate to 7.42 percent, adding A$14 (S$18) to a A$300,000 (S$387,522) home loan.
Other institutions said they are considering whether to follow ANZ’s move.
“’We keep our rates under review all the time, so we’ll just keep doing that,” said Bryan Fitzgerald, a spokesperson at Commonwealth Bank.
The rate increase by ANZ was slightly above the 7.41 percent benchmark rate of Commonwealth Bank and over 10 basis points of National Australia Bank, which has set its variable mortgage rate at 7.31 percent.
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