Interest rate changes this week

The past week has seen two trends. The main one is for long term home loan rates to rise. The other is for a couple of lenders to drop their floating and short-term rates.

Thursday, August 20th 2009, 10:13AM

The table below shows all the home loan rate changes made in the week up to Tuesday night.

Key trends to observe are that BNZ and Kiwibank both dropped their variable rates by 15 and 20 basis points respectively taking them to historical low points.

Surprisingly none of the other banks have matched these moves. Considering much of the lending activity is at the short end of the yield curve it would be no surprise to see other lenders match these cuts.

The table also shows the magnitude of the increases to rates, particularly those of three years or more.

When you scan through the table you will note that Kiwibank has made the biggest increases, of up to 55 basis points. As a result its rates are now firmly in line with its bank compeitors.

Since Tuesday we have seen PSIS and Public Trust increase their rates too. PSIS raised its three-year rate by 40 basis points, taking the rate 7.35% and its four-year rate by 45 points to 7.85%. Although it has increased its rates it is still has some of the lower rates in the market with equivalent mainstream banks five to 10 points higher.

Public Trust has made rate increases this morning.  Its two-year rate has gone up by 25 bps to 6.5%, its three-year rate went up by 55 bps to 7.95%, its four-year rose by 45 bps to 7.95% and its five-year rate increased by 40 bps to 8.30%.

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