A non-major has announced rate cuts of as much as 50 basis points to its fixed rates.
The decreases at ME Bank were evidenced across the entire home loan range and went into effect on Friday, 29 March.
“Ninety four percent of Australians are experiencing distrust toward their bank post royal commission, but only 14% are proactively doing something about it. Hopefully rates like these prompt borrowers unhappy with their bank to review their relationships,” said ME’s head of home loans Andrew Bartolo.
The Deloitte Trust Index for Banking in 2018 revealed that only 20% of Australians believe that banks in general are ethical and acting in a good, right or fair manner. Just 32% believe that regulators are doing a good job holding banks accountable.
Since that data was collected, the royal commission has only further heightened the fraught atmosphere of mistrust.
Bartolo attributed the rate decreases at ME to lowering costs for fixed term funding, savings that the bank is “passing on to customers.”
ME cut its two- and three-year fixed home loans with a Member Package (for owner occupiers paying P&I) by 10 and 20 basis points to 3.74% pa and 3.79% pa respectively. The five-year fixed with a Member Package (for owner occupiers paying P&I) was slashed by 50 basis points to 3.99% pa.
“Fixed rates provide certainty and peace of mind and low-fixed rates can save borrowers money,” concluded Bartolo.
