Sister banks ANZ and National, plus Kiwibank, launch another round of term deposit rate cuts

Sister banks ANZ and National, along with Kiwibank, have cut a range of term deposit rates as swap, or wholesale rates the banks themselves borrow at, continue to fall.

ANZ and National have cut their nine and 12-month rates, and their two to five-year rates for deposits of a minimum of NZ$10,000. The two banks have cut their nine month rate by 20 basis points and one-year rate by 30 basis points, both to 4.30%. They've cut their two, three, four and five-year rates by 25 basis points to 4.50%, 4.75%, 5%, and 5.25%, respectively.

Kiwibank has cut both its four and five-month rates by 20 basis points, to 3.30% and 3.60%, respectively. The state owned bank has cut its two-year rate by 10 basis points to 4.70%, its three-year rate by 10 basis points to 5%, and its five-year rate by 35 basis points to 5.50%. The Kiwibank cuts are also for minimum deposits of NZ$10,000.

Wholesale, or swap, interest rates in New Zealand have been falling in recent weeks on worries about global and local economic growth prospects, with speculation mounting that the next move in the Official Cash Rate - currently at a record low of 2.5% - may be down, highlighting a lower for longer interest rate environment. Banks have been cutting both fixed-term mortgage rates - but not floating rates - and term deposit rates on the back of these wholesale rate falls.

Since the start of the year the three month bank bill rate is down about 19 basis points to 2.54%, the one-year swap rate is down 38 basis points to 2.32%, the two-year swap rate is down 42 basis points to 2.37%, and the five-year is down 43 basis points to 2.94%.

Other banks, including the online arm of Rabobank RaboDirect, have also recently been cutting term deposit rates.

See and compare all advertised term deposit rates for terms of one to nine-months here, and for terms of one to five-years here.