Westpac has moved to lift its variable home loan interest rates by 20 basis points, blaming the imposition of new liquidity rules.
The big banking group announced the move to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) after having earlier entered a trading halt before announcing a $3.5 billion capital raising also in response to the new liquidity requirements.
The bank said the new headline owner occupier variable rate would increase to 5.68 per cent with the headline residential investment property variable rate increasing to 5.95 per cent per annum.
Westpac consumer bank chief executive, George Frazis said the decision had been a difficult one and not been taken lightly.
