Kiwibank and BNZ both raised their three, four and five-year fixed mortgage rates today, bringing them into line with the other major banks.
They also cut their variable rates, with Kiwibank saying it believed its new 5.79 percent variable home loan rate was the lowest variable rate offered in this country for at least 40 years.
Kiwibank said the increases to fixed term rates followed rises in longer term wholesale market rates.
Acting Kiwibank chief executive Paul Brock said interest rates had been static for all the banks for the past six months, but in the past week there had been sharp increases for longer term lending.
Kiwibank lifted its three year rate 55 basis points to 7.4 percent, its four year rate is up 55bp to 7.95 percent and its five year rate up 35bp to 8.3 percent.
Kiwibank also lifted its two-year rate 30bp to 6.39 percent, but that is still a little below the major banks' two-year rates.
At BNZ the standard three-year rate rose 46bp to 7.45 percent, the four-year rate lifted 45bp to 7.95 percent, and for five years the rise was 31bp to 8.3 percent.
The cuts in variable rates took BNZ's standard variable rate down 15bp to 6.3 percent, although its TotalMoney variable rate dropped 14bp to 5.85 percent. The fall in Kiwibank's variable rate was 20bp.
At the other major banks, variable rates range between about 6.4 percent and 6.5 percent.
