Commonwealth Bank slashes interest rates after defiant RBA rate cut call: ‘Sweeping changes’

CBA
CBA has today cut a range of fixed and variable home loan rates. · Source: Getty

Commonwealth Bank (CBA), Australia’s biggest home loan lender, has cut a range of fixed and variable mortgage rates for customers. The move comes after the major bank confirmed it was sticking to its forecast of a November rate cut from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

CBA cut fixed rates across its one, two, three and four-year terms by up to 0.70 per cent, while select new customer variable rates have dropped by up to 0.35 per cent. The bank's standard variable rate and rates for existing customers have been left unchanged.

The last Big Four bank to cut variable rates was NAB back in April this year but there has been a flurry of fixed-rate cuts recently. Westpac cut a range of fixed rates by up to 0.80 per cent this week, while NAB cut its three-year fixed rate by 0.60 per cent in July. But experts have told Yahoo Finance there were risks to consider before locking in a fixed rate.

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Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall said CBA’s “sweeping changes” were a bid to bring new business in the door.

“This move from Australia’s biggest bank will put heat on the rest of the market to make sure they’ve got competitive new customer home loan rates,” Tindall said.

“While these variable rate changes are only for new customers, there’s nothing stopping existing CBA variable mortgage customers from picking up the phone and asking for this rate cut.”

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CBA economists are still pencilling in a November interest rate cut, despite the RBA board ruling out a “near-term” cut in the next six months.

“We continue to side with market pricing and think it more likely than not we will see an interest rate cut by the end of the year,” head of Australian economics Gareth Aird said.

Aird said this is based on inflation moderating faster than the current RBA’s forecast and unemployment moving up a little quicker.

He acknowledged this "might look odd" and went against RBA governor Michele Bullock's comments.

Fixed interest rate tide turning

Tindall said the fixed-rate tide was “continuing to turn” as the cost of wholesale funding drops.

She expects ANZ will follow the move of the other three Big Four banks and sharpen its offering to keep up with the pack.

“It’s not just the big banks lowering select fixed rates. Over the last fortnight, a total of seven lenders have cut at least one fixed rate,” Tindall said.