ANZ Bank New Zealand has joined with other major banks to cut interest rates.
The bank on Wednesday announced changes to business lending, floating and fixed home loan interest rates, along with interest accruing on savings accounts and term deposits.
ANZ NZ managing director for business and agri Lorraine Mapu said the recent lift in consumer confidence — easing inflation pressure— and a drop in wholesale rates were encouraging signs but inflation wasn’t beaten yet.
“For many of our business and farming customers, the environment remains really challenging out there. The New Zealand economy is still doing it tough and global markets remain volatile,” Mapu said.
“But, following the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s July Official Cash Rate announcement, we’ve seen a drop in wholesale rates so we’re able to pass on further savings to our customers.”
In response to decreases in wholesale swap rates and the reduction in home loan rates, ANZ said it had also decreased savings rates by 15-basis points and term deposit rates between 10-basis points and 30-basis points for terms one-year and longer.
The five-month term deposit rate has increased by 50-basis points.
Term deposit changes
ANZ New Zealand has cut the interest earned for most term deposits.
Term deposits set at over 18-months have all been reduced by -0.30%.
This includes the five-year and four-year (now at 4.70%), the three-year (now at 4.80%), the two-year (now at 5.05%), and the 18-month (now at 5.30%) term deposit rates of return.
The bank’s one-year term deposit has also been slashed by -0.10% and is now at 5.60%.
The shorter term deposits which were also cut include 270 day deposits (-0.25%) now at 5.75%, 240 day deposits (-0.15%) now also at 5.75%, 210 day deposits (-0.10%) now at 5.75%, and the 180 day deposits (-0.15%) which is now at 5.75%.
The only term deposit which had an increase in its rate of return is the 150 day deposit, which increased by +0.50%.
The 30, 60, 90 and 120 day term deposit interest rates were left unchanged.
Serious Saver changes
Interest earned from Serious Saver accounts have also been cut across the board.
The standard rate interest has decreased by -0.05% p.a. and now sits at 1.20% p.a.
The premium interest rate interest has decreased by -0.10% p.a., meaning it is down to 3.15% p.a.
Together, means the total available interest rate has been cut by -0.15% p.a. to 4.35% p.a.
Business floating interest rate changes
The business overdraft base rate (now at 15.55% p.a.), the business bank indicator rate and the commercial overdraft base rate (now at 13.55% p.a.), and the agri current account base rate (now at 11.75% p.a.) have all been decreased by -0.15%.
Business term loans have also been decreased by -0.15%.
The business term loan floating base rate, the business plus loan floating base rate and the business specialised loan floating base rate are now all set at 6.90% p.a.
The business green loan floating rate, which also saw the same decrease of -0.15%, is now at 6.30% p.a.
Home loan interest rate changes
ANZ New Zealand’s interest on home loans have almost all been reduced across the board.
Interest on floating home loans (now at 8.49% p.a.), flexible home loans (now at 8.60% p.a.) and business flexible facility loans (now at 8.49% p.a.) have all been reduced by -0.15%.
Fixed special rate loans have also been reduced, with the the six month (now at 6.99% p.a.) rate down -0.06%, the 18-month (now at 6.49% p.a.) down -0.20%, the two-year (now at 6.34% p.a.) down -0.15% and the three year (now at 5.99% p.a.) down -0.36%.
The one-year special fixed rate was left unchanged, and remains at 6.85% p.a.
For fixed rate home loans, both the five year and four year were reduced by -0.30%, and now sit at 6.84%.
The three-year fixed rate (now at 6.59% p.a.) is also down -0.36%, the two-year rate (now at 6.94% p.a.) is down 0.15%, the 18-month (now at 7.09% p.a.) is down -0.20% and the six-month rate (now at 7.59% p.a.) is down -0.06%.
The one-year fixed rate also remains unchanged, at 7.45% p.a.
The new rates will be effective from the following dates:
- Savings and term deposits: August 1, 2024.
Home Loans:
- ANZ Fixed Home Loans: August 1, 2024.
- ANZ Floating home loan interest rate: New loans, August 1 and existing loans on August 15.
- ANZ Flexible home loan interest rate: August 15.
- Business Floating base interest rate: August 6 for new loans and August 20 for existing loans.
- Business Overdraft base interest rate: August 20.