St George cuts home rate by 10 points
April 8, 2009
St George Bank has cut its standard variable home loan interest rates by 10 basis points.
The bank, which is owned by Westpac, said its standard rate will fall to 5.79 per cent from April 17.
St George will also cut its business and commercial lending rates by 25 basis points.
The mortgage rate reduction equates to a saving of approximately $16 per month in repayments on an average size loan of $250,000 over a 30-year loan term.
St George general manager of retail bank distribution Andrew Moore said the bank could not pass on the full 25 basis point rate cut made by the central bank on Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lowered the cash interest rate to three per cent, from 3.25 per cent.
"Since the start of the financial crisis, banks have been facing ongoing higher costs in both the short and long term wholesale funding markets," Mr Moore said in a statement on Wednesday.
"These much higher funding costs overall mean that we are unable to pass on the full RBA decrease on this occasion for home loan interest rates."
