Major bank lowers rates despite central bank's decision to keep them steady.

ANZ has recently announced that it will be lowering its variable home loan interest rate, following in the footsteps of the Commonwealth Bank and NAB. This decision was made despite indications from the Reserve Bank that an official interest rate cut may still be months away. It's worth noting that ANZ already had the lowest advertised variable rate among the four major banks.

For new customers, ANZ's Simplicity Plus and ANZ Plus loans will now have rates of 6.39 per cent and 6.09 per cent, respectively. This move solidifies ANZ's position as the bank with the lowest variable rates among the big four. The timing of this decision comes just a week after NAB announced a 0.40 per cent cut to its variable interest rate for new customers, which is equivalent to two rate cuts. Additionally, the Commonwealth Bank reduced a range of its fixed and variable home loan rates for both owner-occupiers and investors back in August.

This trend of lowering rates seems to be catching on, with 12 lenders in total making cuts to at least one variable rate. On the other hand, only five lenders have increased their rates. According to Canstar, this is part of a larger pre-Christmas rate cut frenzy. Sally Tindall, Canstar's Data Insights Director, notes that ANZ is the third big bank to lower its new customer variable rates in the last three months, despite no change to the cash rate. This is clear evidence that the competition among the big banks is still going strong.

Tindall also believes that these rate cuts are great news for current mortgage holders. She suggests that now is the perfect time for customers to approach their bank and request a more competitive rate. While ANZ may still trail behind the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and NAB in terms of market dominance, with only 13.6 per cent of residential mortgages, it has seen the largest year-on-year increase in residential mortgages. This shows that ANZ is making strides in the market and gaining more customers.

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