ANZ announced Friday it would lift rates on its home and business loan customers by 6bps, taking its standard variable rate to 7.42%. ANZAustralia chief executive Phil Chronican tried to highlight the benefit to depositors in breaking the news.
“The funding environment changed quite dramatically in late 2011 as a result of the economic and financial crisis in Europe. This has seen wholesale funding costs rise and competition increase dramatically among banks for deposits. We accept our response to the new funding environment is difficult for some of our customers - even though deposit customers have benefited from better rates," he said.
Chronican said the bank had left rates untouched last month because it wanted to ensure higher funding costs were sustained before passing them on to borrowers.
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