Home topics news News News Banks pass on rate rise in full Jessica Stanic November 4, 2009 Banks pass on rate rise in full Just 15 minutes after the Reserve Bank announced an increase in the official interest rates to 3.5 percent, ANZ signaled its intention to match the Reserve Bank’s rate. The other big four banks soon followed. CBA moved almost an hour later, followed first by National Australia Bank and then Westpac. ANZ acting chief executive Australia Graham Hodges, said in a statement that it is in “everyone’s interest that the recovery consolidates and the right thing to do at this point in the economic cycle is for us to absorb the additional funding costs and pass on only the amount of today’s official increase to our mortgage and small business customers.” From Monday, the new rates will be as follows: * ANZ standard variable rate home loan – 6.31 percent * Commonwealth Bank flagship home rate – 6.24 percent * NAB standard variable rate mortgage – 6.24 percent * Westpac standard variable home loan and deposit interest rates – 6.31 percent However, in a push to snare a greater share of small to mid-sized business loans, Westpac said it was not planning to increase variable business lending rates. Just 15 minutes after the Reserve Bank announced an increase in the official interest rate to 3.5 percent, ANZ signalled its intention to match the Reserve Bank’s rate. The other ‘big four’ banks soon followed. CBA moved almost an