Deafening silence from the banks post-RBA – who will move first?

There is still no word from the big four banks on what they intend to do after Tuesday’s 0.50 percentage point hike from the RBA.

While this stand-off between the big banks is not unusual, the time taken to make their announcements is getting longer.

In May, three of the four big banks – CBA, Westpac and ANZ – made their rate announcements on the day of the RBA decision, while NAB waited until the following morning.

In August, however, all four big banks waited around two days before making their announcements. The question is, how long will people wait this month?

Auswide is the only lender on the RateCity.com.au database to have made its home loan rate announcement so far.

The lender is hiking variable mortgages by 0.50 percentage points for existing customers and up to 0.40 percentage points for new customers from 20 September 2022. The bank’s savings rates remain under review.

ubank has announced it will be passing on the full hike to its Save account, taking the maximum ongoing savings rate to 3.35 per cent from 1 October 2022. The bank has not made a home loan announcement.

RateCity.com.au research director, Sally Tindall, said: “The big four banks are in a staring competition to see who will blink first.”

“The banks might be enjoying this game, but customers are not,” she said.

“Around three quarters of Australians bank with one of the big four banks, and many of them will be waiting to find out what this means for their home loans and savings accounts.

“Since the start of the RBA hikes, CBA has been the first big bank to show its hand after three of the four cash rate meetings, including in May, July and August, while Westpac was the first cab off the rank in June.

“ubank has come out of the blocks firing, announcing it will pass on the full RBA hike to its ‘Save’ account from 1 October, taking it to a maximum ongoing rate of 3.35 per cent.

“This will put pressure on some of the other market leaders to put decent hikes on the table for their savings customers.

“If you’re fed up with playing the waiting game, pick up the phone to your bank, email or tweet them and ask what they intend to do,” she said.

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