WestpacTrust is guaranteeing to hold its floating mortgage rate at 8.25 per cent until the next Official Cash Rate review in mid March.
The bank's saying that stable wholesale interest rates, reinforced by today's rate cut by the US Federal Reserve, means it can guarantee its floating rate for this period. It's also lowering some fixed rates and introducing a special nine month rate of 6.99 per cent, which it says is the first time fixed rates have been below seven percent since January 2000.
General Manager NZ Retail Ross Aitken said that most fixed rate home loans were for full year periods, but the bank was expecting fixed rates to bottom out around September.
"The nine month term allows customers to lock in a low interest rate until that time, and then have the flexibility to fix their loan for a long period when rates should be at their lowest, rather than miss out because their fixed rate has another three months to run."