Major bank's $2.4 million a day 'boon' exposed as CBA, NAB and ANZ make popular move
Commonwealth Bank, NAB and ANZ customers will see their variable home loan interest rate drop from today, following the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) May cash rate cut. Westpac customers will have to wait until Tuesday for the rate change.
More than 20 lenders have now dropped variable rates following last week's decision, where the official cash rate was lowered 0.25 per cent to 3.85 per cent. More than 50 lenders have made their post-RBA announcements, but haven't yet passed on the cut.
Infochoice editor and research analyst Harrison Astbury told Yahoo Finance some banks' cuts to mortgage rates wouldn't take effect until June 10 or 11, more than 20 days after the RBA's announcement.
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'In terms of the tardiest on home loans it's actually two smaller customer-owned banks - P&N Bank which rate cuts take effect on 10 June, and Tassie-based Bank of Us [on] 11 June,' Astbury told Yahoo Finance.
'Bendigo is probably the biggest player that is the tardiest, with home loan rate cuts not taking effect until 6 June.'
Horizon Bank now offers the lowest variable rate on the market, according to Canstar, with a first-home buyer loan priced at 5.25 per cent.
CBA, Westpac, and ANZ's lowest variable rate will be from 5.59 per cent when the rates take effect, while NAB's will be 5.94 per cent.Both Westpac and NAB have chopped their savings rates ahead of their mortgage rates.
Westpac's savings cuts will come into effect today, while its home loan rate cuts won't be until June 3. NAB lowered rates on its two main savings accounts last Friday ahead of today's mortgage cut.
While the delay might not seem like much, Astbury said it could be a huge 'boon' for the banks.
'Westpac stands to gain up to $2.4 million per day in the four days between its savings account and home loan rate cuts,' he said.
'This can be calculated via looking at its variable home loan vs deposit book ($485 billion vs $348.5 billion), based on its net interest margin (NIM) — 1.88 per cent — gleaned from its latest half-year results.'
Astbury said NAB could gain around $766,000 a day from the seven-day delay, due to the makeup of its loan versus deposit booms and lower NIM.
CBA and ANZ have made their savings cuts take effect from today, the same day as home loan rate cuts.
CBA quietly announced it would be passing on the 25 basis point cut to savings account customers this morning.
Infochoice found the biggest gap between savings and home loan rate cuts was from AMP, who has a 10 day difference.
The average borrower with a $600,000 home loan with 25 years remaining will see their minimum monthly repayments drop by $91 following May's cash rate cut.
CBA, ANZ and NAB do not automatically adjust repayments after rate cuts and customers have to initiate a change to their direct debit. Customers may have to wait until at least late June or July to see their repayments drop, depending on their billing cycle.
Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall said customers should consider whether they want the relief in their bank account or for it to stay in their mortgage.
'If you don't need the cash right now to make ends meet, think about keeping your repayments exactly the same, because if you can chip in a little bit extra each month, for the rest of your loan term, you could potentially find yourself mortgage-free years ahead of schedule and save tens of thousands of dollars,' she said.
Astbury has called on lenders to move quicker to pass on interest rate cuts to borrowers.
Unloan and Athena, for example, dropped new and existing variable rates on the same day as the RBA announcement, effective immediately. Unloan is owned by CBA.
Macquarie was also quick to the draw, dropping savings and home loan rates three days after the RBA decision.
'We've seen it is possible to move incredibly quickly and there's a variety of reasons why some banks are slow to act,' he told Yahoo Finance.
'They will say legacy IT systems delay the rate cuts — some banks will point out they still have numerous tech platforms with different home loan customers on them versus the new digital players which might only have one or two.
'This isn't a good enough excuse in my opinion. The secret reason is protecting margins, and as we know in the case of Bendigo and smaller regional players experiencing bleed back to the major banks, margins have taken a hit so they are doing anything they can to protect them.'
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