Westpac is increasing fixed home loan rates on terms from one to three years, and says Middle Eastern tensions are to blame.
It is also raising some term deposit rates.
From Tuesday, the bank’s one-year advertised special home loan rate will increase by 20 basis points to 4.99 percent. The 18-month and two-year rates will increase by 26 basis points to 5.35 percent and 5.45 percent, respectively.
The three-year rate will increase by 6 basis points to 5.35 percent.
Westpac’s managing director of consumer bank and wealth, Helen Ryder, said re-escalating Middle East tensions had driven up wholesale interest rates, which increased the bank’s funding costs..
“Most wholesale interest rates are now over 0.30 percent higher than they were a month ago, so with today’s changes we are passing on some of those higher costs but also absorbing some,” she said.
“Despite some upward pressure, we’ve kept our longer-term housing rates unchanged as we recognise some customers may be looking at the economic outlook and thinking about fixing for a longer period to get certainty over their loan repayments.”
Two-year swap rates are now at about 3.45 percent, compared to just over 3 percent at the end of last month.