Banks lower variable rates to compete for customers | The Business | ABC NEWS

By ABC News (Australia)

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Competition in the mortgage market is heating up as banks compete for fewer customers by cutting home loan rates, even as the Reserve Bank threatens to raise the cash rate. MST Financial banking analyst Brian Johnson said "we saw CBA actually cut. We saw the other banks basically follow. But then if we go into the last week of July, Macquarie came out and cut again." Loan Market mortgage broker Julian Choo said "dozens of banks have dropped their variable rates in the last month." He said lenders usually did not proactively promote better interest-rate deals to existing customers. The big banks are chasing new customers as their funding costs rise and property prices fall. Applications for home loans have fallen sharply, especially for investors following the government's tax changes and three interest rate hikes so far this year. The Commonwealth Bank has the largest slice of the mortgage pie, followed by Westpac, NAB and ANZ Bank. But Macquarie Bank is nipping at their heel

Tags: Australia, abc, abc news, news, business news, finance news, economic news, economy, finance, the business, abc news australia, the business abc, mortgage, mortgage war, variable rate, fixed rate, big four, big four banks, banking, commonwealth bank