Rates still too high? July 11, 2009
Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard announced the release of a report on bank interest rates and margins, amid growing concern from some quarters that the large banks are charging higher interest rates than they should. Floating rate mortgages are “unusually high” at the moment, the Reserve Bank said.
Federated Farmers are also concerned about the high level of interest rates being charged by lenders and comment;
With rural debt at $45 billion, every 1 percent of interest equates to $450 million that could be invested on the farm or used to repay debt.
Although floating-rate lending is a relatively small proportion of the total debt, every dollar counts in the current economic climate.
Mortgage rates charged by banks is not just a New Zealand issue. London’s Financial Time’s Sharlene Goff reports in an article “Mortgage rate rises defy calls for fairer lending“ that UK Banks are refusing to cut mortgage costs for borrowers, and some are still pushing rates up, in spite of sharp falls in their own funding costs in recent weeks.
Hey We are in March 2010 comment from June 2009 is misleading and irrelevant. It needs an update