ANZ, CBA hike mortgage rates

ANZ has joined Westpac in lifting interest rates on mortgages in response to higher funding costs:

Variable interest rates for home and residential investment loans will rise by 16 basis points (Westpac’s was 14 basis points), effective September 27. This means the declared rate for a principal and interest loan will now be 5.36%. That said, NO rise for ANZ home loan customers in drought-declared regional Australia are planned.

Fred Ohlsson, ANZ Group Executive Australia, says the decision to lift was a difficult one.

“We know the impact rising interest rates have on family budgets,” he says.

“The reality is it is more expensive for us to fund our home loans on wholesale markets and we also needed to balance the needs of all stakeholders.

“There is no change to the effective rates of our home loan customers in drought declared regional Australia benefiting more than 70,000 of our customers.

“We wanted to play our part in keeping cash in regional towns impacted by the drought and we hope this will also assist both families and small businesses in these areas.”

So too has CBA, hiking by 15 basis points:

Commonwealth Bank has followed its rivals in lifting its variable mortgage rates, pleading increased funding costs.

Australia’s largest lender says variable rates for owner-occupiers and investors will increase by 0.15 percentage points from October 4.

NAB to follow. Next official move in interest rates is down!