WESTPAC AND ANZ BREAK SILENCE WITH PARTIAL RATE CUT

SOURCE: FINANCIAL REVIEW

The two banks join Comonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank in defying Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's plea for the cut to be passed on in full, after taking more than 24 hours to decide how much of the cut to pass on to mortgage borrowers and how much to keeo for shareholders.

Westpac and ANZ announced changes to their standard variable home loan rates on Wednesday afternoon, more than 24 hours after the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate to a historic low of 0.75 per cent.

Westpac has announced a 15 basis point cut across its investor and owner-occupier standard variable rate loans, while ANZ followed with a 14 basis point cut for owner-occupiers and 25 basis point cut for investors.

The moves are broadly in line with those announced by Commonwealth Bank and NAB in the immediate aftermath of the RBA's October decision and fall well short of expectations it would pass on the 25 basis point reduction in official rates to borrowers in full.