Australian banks passed interest rate hikes on to mortgage holders – so why haven’t they done so for savings accounts?

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/06/australian-banks-have-passed-interest-rate-hikes-on-to-mortgage-holders-so-why-havent-they-done-so-for-savings-accounts

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33 Comments

  1. PuzzleheadedBell560 on

    Skip reading the article and just join one of the many banks that have… Ubank, Up, Macquarie and plenty of others are…

  2. Wait a second… You don’t think maybe… No, surely not… Banks want to make… Money??

    Fuck-arses at Westpac told me within 24 hours my home loan rate increase would be applied in a weeks time. Meanwhile any rate reduction has historically taken 6+ weeks

  3. Most major banks are cunts, and most people are dumb enough to keep giving them money even after the royal commission into how big a bunch of cunts they actually are.

  4. Traditional-Bug-1045 on

    Westpac did too. They emailed me the next day about it. I’m so happy that I left shitty NAB

  5. Back when COVID was a thing and rates hit rock bottom, they were complaining bitterly about margins being squeezed because savings rates got close to mortgage rates.

    Now they are trying to renormalise a profitable gap.

  6. Also why do banks take like a month to pass on rate decreases but like 7-14 days for an increase

  7. the main purpose of a bank, and the statutory duty of its directors, is to make as much profit for shareholders as possible.

  8. easeypeaseyweasey on

    Same reason a bomb landing in the middle East affects the price of fuel at the pump, but an excess in oil needs to flow through the system for consumers to notice the relief. 

  9. They are trying to protect their net interest margin for as long as possible, Since nearly 60% of bank funding is reliant on saving deposits, increasing those rates would have a immediate impact to their cost of borrowing. They would rather wait and see how the more aggressive banks (that are trying to win customers) react before passing n a portion of the rate rise to savers.