ASB has also lowered its six-month home loan rate by 20bps to 4.65%, which it says is “market-leading”.
BNZ and ASB are lifting some long-term mortgage rates by up to 30 points. Photo / Getty Images
Meanwhile, BNZ concurrently dropped its six-month rate from 10bps to 4.79% as it hiked rates for 18-month terms by 19bps to 4.64%.
Two-year term rates will be moved to 4.69% (an increase of 20bps), while three-, four- and five-year term rates will be raised by 30bps.
ASB general manager Adam Boyd said higher wholesale costs have led to an increase in home loan rates on some terms.
“While today’s adjustments reflect the reality of higher funding costs, the change in market conditions is good news for some of our savers, with term deposit rates increasing by up to 35 basis points.”
Neither bank changed its one-year fixed term rates, continuing the trend in the wider banking sector.
The latest OCR cut on November 26 provided further relief for shorter-term rates, yet the 20bps spike in two-year swap rates have continued to influence longer-term rates, leading Reserve Bank Governor Dr Anna Breman to issue a statement aimed at talking down the market.
Reserve Bank Governor Dr Anna Breman has made an effort to dispel market reactions to the bank’s November 26 Monetary Policy Statement. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Last week, the Co-operative Bank became the second major bank to both increase its long-term home loan and term deposit rates and drop its shorter-term rates.
Westpac was the first to move, announcing it would lift its two- to five-year fixed mortgage rates by 30bps in response to wholesale rate rises.
ANZ was the last bank to do so, lifting several mortgage and term deposit rates on Monday by up to 30bps while cutting its six-month rate by 10bps.
Breman, speaking to the Herald this week, stressed that the Reserve Bank’s November 26 Monetary Policy Statement for the year ahead “still holds”.
“I think there is a risk that if mortgage rates rise quickly, that households will see that and be more cautious than maybe they need to be,” she said.
“I think it is important that we see a healthy [economic] recovery now and also that that recovery lasts. It’s been three years of very weak growth and we’re just about to get out of that.”
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