(12 June 2012 – Australia) The ANZ bank is happy to claim credit for clearing an independent path on interest rates from The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), as shown in the delay of its rivals acting upon the central bank’s rate cuts last week.From the start of 2012, the ANZ has set its interest rates on the second Friday of each month, regardless of whether the Reserve Bank had shifted its key cash rate at its monthly meeting.
‘ANZ wanted to stop the ‘dog and pony show’ that occurs after the Reserve Bank changes rates and we’ve done that by setting a particular date on which we will inform our customers how we will respond,” Paul Edwards, ANZ’s general manager of corporate communications told The Herald.
The banks tend to benefit by any delay in passing on interest rate cuts on to customers holding variable loans, such as mortgages.
At the size of the last rate reduction, the bank profits swell by about A$6.2 million a day, according to Australia Institute estimates.
An industry source told the paper most lenders are ‘just sitting there waiting for ANZ to make their decision.’
It’s not just the big four banks – ANZ, Commonwealth, NAB, Westpac – that are holding back. The Bank of Queensland acted within minutes on Tuesday to cut its variable lending rate by 20 basis points, retaining five basis points of the RBA reduction.