The Co-operative Bank To Lift Deposit Interest Rates In Line With OCR

After last week’s official cash rate increase of 0.50%, The Co-operative Bank today announces even handed rate changes for both borrowers and depositors.

Their floating home loan interest rate is increasing by 0.40% while its main Step Saver savings account interest rate is increasing by 0.50%. Effective from 20 June, the amount customers could earn with bonus interest on the Step Saver account will increase from 1.20% to 1.70%. At the same time, the popular Youth Saver account offers one of New Zealand’s highest youth saver rates at 2.6% for the first $4,000.

The last two OCR changes have been the largest increases New Zealand has seen in over 20 years since May 2000. Given the significance of these changes at a time when cost of living is going up, The Co-operative Bank’s principle of giving fair rates to borrowers and depositors means it has countered rate changes for its mortgage customers with better rates for deposit customers.

The Co-operative Bank’s balanced approach has a one year fixed home loan rate of 4.49% from 7 June and 1 year Term Deposit rate of 3.0% from 2 June.

The Co-operative Bank’s Chief Executive Mark Wilkshire said it was a great demonstration of the bank’s core beliefs as a New Zealand owned co-operative, where benefits are shared with its customers. The Co-operative Bank is a retail bank and relies 100% on customer deposits to provide access to lending for New Zealanders.

“As we are the only New Zealand bank owned by our customers, it’s important that we do right by them and fairly reflect OCR increases in saving rates as well as mortgage rates where we can.”

“This is another way we share value with our customers and have recently been rewarded for it, winning top spot in the annual Consumer NZ Banking Satisfaction survey.”

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