Kiwibank blazing the trail for floating rates
Kiwibank is the first bank to change its floating mortgage rate this year, cutting it by 14 basis points to 5.65% which is the second lowest floating rate behind BNZ's TotalMoney product offered at 5.59%.
Kiwibank communications manager Bruce Thompson says Kiwibank made the change to its floating rate because it wanted to make sure it retained a competitive position.
He says a lot of people are uncertain about what's happening with interest rates so they are going on the floating rate to watch and wait.
"People are doing a mixture of variable and fixed rates and we want to make sure when they look at what's available they see they get a good rate with us...MORE»
Bank liquidity requirements could keep rate hikes to a minimumFriday, January 29th, 3:40PM
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UPDATE: Bollard holds OCR; expects to hike about mid-yearThursday, January 28th, 10:44AM
Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard has left interest rates unchanged and reaffirmed his expectation he will begin hiking rates around the middle of the year. MORE» |
OCR holds, mid-year rate hike still likely
Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard kept the official cash rate at a record-low 2.5% as expected, and said the gradual recovery in the economy was in line with expectations and gave him breathing space to stick to his timeline of a mid-year rate hike.
MORE»FULL RBNZ SPEECH: OCR unchanged at 2.5%
The Reserve Bank today left the Official Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 2.5%.
MORE»Economists expect RBNZ to leave OCR unchanged
Benign inflation numbers put paid to any expectations Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard to hike rates on Thursday and the debate is now focused on the first rate rise of the current cycle coming somewhere between March and June.
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SBS holds its home loan market share
SBS Bank’s September quarter net profit fell 12%, largely reflecting a drop in net interest income, while its share of the mortgage market held steady over the quarter.
MORE»Westpac records above average lending growth
Westpac's New Zealand subsidiary saw a sharp drop in profitability in the September quarter, reflecting rising charges against profit for bad loans, although its mortgage lending grew faster than the average of the other banks.
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