ING Direct passes on full rate cut while Greater Building Society passes on 15 bps to standard variable customers

While the major banks keep as quiet as church mice, ING Direct has passed on the full 25 basis point rate cut to its borrowers.

The rate cut will take effect on October 12 and will reduce the interest rate on its most popular variable rate offering, Mortgage Simplifier to 5.97%.

ING Direct is the fifth largest home lender in the country, with $38 billion in mortgages.

Also today, The Greater Building Society has announced that it will reduce its already low home loan rates by between 0.15  and 0.25 percentage points.

A full rate cut will apply to the Greater’s Ultimate Home Loan (packaged loan) rate which will fall to 5.74% (comparison rate 6.09%).

The Greater’s standard variable home loan and basic variable home loan rates will fall by 0.15 percentage points to 6.25% p.a (comparison rate of 6.31% p.a.) and 5.89% p.a. (comparison rate of 5.95% p.a.) respectively.

The decrease in rates is effective from Monday for new loans and for existing customers from October 15.

Customers on a 30-year standard variable or basic home loan of $300,000 will see their monthly repayments reduce by $30.

CEO Don Magin says The Greater wanted to pass on as much of the cut as possible as quickly as possible to customers.

He says intense competition and high loan funding costs meant that The Greater was not able to pass on the full rate cut this time.

The Greater’s standard and basic variable home loan rates will remain lower than those of the major banks, even lower when comparison rates are used.