Which home loan lenders have passed on the RBA rate cut?

Wednesday 06 May 2015

Article by Rebeccah Elley

With the Reserve Bank of Australia cutting the official cash rate to a record low 2% at yesterday’s May board meeting, the question on everyone’s lips is - will home loan lenders follow suit? <<Update: To see which lenders have reduce rates after the RBA cut the official cash rate to 1.75% at the May 2016 board meeting, see here>> 

Out of the big four, so far ANZ has been the first to pass on the full rate cut, reducing its variable retail home loans by 0.25%, starting from Friday, 8 May. A quick turnaround considering past RBA rate cuts have shown many lenders take weeks to implement a rate reduction.

This will bring ANZ’s standard variable interest rate down to 5.38%, which the big bank says will save customers about $60 per month or $750 per year for the average home loan of $300,000.

The Commonwealth Bank has also passed on a rate cut to customers, however didn’t go as far as offering the full 25 basis point rate reduction, instead dropped its Standard Variable Rate (SVR) mortgage by 0.20% to 5.45%.

<<Update>> The National Australia Bank has also decided against passing on the full rate cut, instead reducing its Standard Variable Rate by 0.20% to 5.43%.

A handful of other lenders have dropped their rates by the full 0.25%, including:

• ING DIRECT from Friday 15 May, bringing the ING DIRECT Mortgage Simplifier to just 4.72%.

• ME Bank cutting its Standard Home Loan variable interest rate to 4.88% and its member package rate to 4.68% for home loans up to $500,000, starting 22 May.

• Loans.com.au reduced its Dream Home Loan Essentials to 3.98% effective immediately. However, the offer is only for new loans and applications already in progress. The lender says it will consider a rate cut for existing customers in the coming days.
  
  
• bankmecu will slash its standard variable home loan rate by 25 basis points on 15 May to 5.09%.
  
  
• Greater Building Society cut its Ultimate Home Loan (packaged variable loan) to 4.24%, its Great Rate (basic variable loan) rate to 4.64% and its standard variable rate to 5% effective immediately for new home loans. However, existing customers will have to wait until May 15.
  

Mozo will be keeping a close eye on the market and updating our naughty or nice table to show you the providers that have passed on the full RBA rate cut.