As Australia household budgets feel the pinch of higher mortgage rates, banks are stepping up their competition for new home loan customers by cutting key fixed interest rates, new figures show, Yahoo reported. Comparison website RateCity says 11 lenders–including several big banks – have cut their three-year fixed interest rates in the last two weeks. It comes after millions of big bank mortgage customers starting paying more interest on Friday, as variable interest rate hikes announced last month by the big banks and several smaller lenders took effect. Banks blamed the increases on higher regulatory costs, but are still competing aggressively for new borrowers or those who are refinancing.
