Released 18 June 2012



The majority of lenders have failed to pass on the full 25 basis point cut announced by the Reserve Bank of Australia at its June meeting, according to financial comparison website RateCity.

RateCity spokesperson Michelle Hutchinson said according to its database of more than 100 lenders, 32 lenders had announced standard variable home loan cuts.

Only two lenders – ANZ and Unicredit WA – have passed on the full 25 basis point rate cut.

“The average rate cut out of these lenders was 20 basis points, which is 80 per cent of the RBA rate cut,” she said.

“This is an improvement from last month, where RateCity found that on average only 64 per cent of the RBA’s 50 basis points was passed onto variable home loan customers.”

Hutchinson said two rate cuts in a row totaling 75 basis points is a significant hit for lenders.

“But we expect most lenders to pass on about 20 basis points by the end of the month.

“If bad news in Europe continues to place pressure on funding costs, it’s likely that lenders will creep rates higher in smaller bursts out of cycle, like we saw at the start of the year, or continue to hold back a portion of future RBA rate cuts.”