More of the big banks gave their clients welcome pre-Christmas relief announcing cuts in their home loan rates following the gradual decline in the repo rate at which the Reserve Bank lends them money.
Cuts in the base home loan rates by Standard Bank, First National Bank, Mercantile Lisbon Bank and the Nedcor group of banks this week followed home loan rate cuts by Absa and NBS last week when most of the big banks also cut their prime lending rates.
Nedbank, Permanent Bank and People's Bank this week announced a 0,5 percentage point cut in home loan rates from Tuesday.
Standard Bank's new rate of 22,75 percent is also valid from Tuesday; FNB's new home loan rate of 22,75 percent is already effective for new business and from January 4 for existing clients; Investec's new home loan rate of 22,75 percent is effective from January 4, as is Mercantile's new rate of 22,5 percent.
INTEREST RATES
BANKBASE HOME LOAN RATEDECREASE*
Absa22,50%0,50%
First National Bank22,75%0,50%
Investec22,75%0,50%
Mercantile Bank22,50%0,50%
NBS/Boland23,00%0,25%
Nedcor (Perm, Nedbank & People's Bank)22,75%0,50%
Saambou22,75%0,25%
Standard Bank22,75%0,25%
*These cuts have been made since December 7 1998.