St George Bank has joined a list of banks that have cut their variable home loan rates by 10 basis points.

The Westpac owned bank said its standard variable mortgage rate will fall to 5.79 per cent effective April 17.

St George will also mirror Westpac in passing on the full 25 basis point rate cut to its business and commercial loans.

The 10 basis point rate cut will equate to a saving of approximately $16 per month in mortgage repayments on an average size loan of $250,000 over a 30-year loan term.

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 official cash rate to a 49-year low of 3 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.”

National Australia Bank has decided against passing on any of the RBA rate cut, citing the high cost of sourcing funds from international markets.

Standard variable home loan rates by Australia’s big four banks now stand at 5.64 per cent for Commonwealth Bank, 5.74 per cent for NAB, and 5.81 per cent at both Westpac and ANZ.
AAP, The Australian