THE Newcastle Permanent will pass on in full the Reserve Bank of Australia's latest interest rate hike as other Hunter lenders consider their position.
On Thursday afternoon the Perm confirmed its variable home loan rates and business loan rates will increase by 0.50% per annum, effective from June 17 and applying to new and existing customers.
It has also increased its rates on some term deposit offers, including a new rate of 2.25% per annum on new 12-month term deposits, a move designed to "provide some relief" to customers who had witnessed a lower level of return on their funds in recent years.
The Hunter headquartered lender's announcement follows the RBA's decision on Tuesday to increase interest rates by 0.50%, from 0.35% to 0.85%.
Chief executive officer Bernadette Inglis said the decision was increasing home loan rates for customers "is not an action we take lightly", especially in the current economic environment.
"For many of our customers, the RBA's decision earlier this week to increase the official cash rate by 0.50% will be the first time many of our customers have experienced a consecutive-month official cash rate increase, but also an increase of this size in a single month - the last time it happened was more than 20 years ago.
"In the past couple of years, historically-low interest rates have helped more than 90% of our home loan customers get ahead on their repayments and we have confidence that this has put the majority of our customers in a good position to manage increases in interest rates."
The Perm will directly contact impacted variable home loan customers, through email or letter, whose accounts have been affected by the latest announcement.
