John MacDonald: You won't catch me playing violin for the banks

For quite a while now, I have been really brassed-off whenever I’ve seen the bank we’re with advertising a special mortgage rate for new customers. And each time they’ve done it, I’ve gone into the bank and said to them that, as an existing customer, I should be entitled to the same rate too. But, oh no, can’t do that. And time and time again, I’ve thought to myself that they are breaking pretty much the first rule of business development - which is to look after your existing customers as much as you can, because it is much easier to keep customers than get new ones. So I’m not terribly surprised to hear independent economist Tony Alexander saying today that the banks are involved in what he’s calling an “under the line” mortgage war. These banks are struggling to meet their home loan sales targets. So, what they’re doing, is they’re cutting their mortgage rates for new customers to try and get more loans and customers on their book. The BNZ is one bank he’s actually named as being involved in this, but Tony Alexander says BNZ isn’t on its own and pretty much all of the banks are desperate to get new customers. Now a business getting new customers is fine - I’ve got no beef with that. The banks are businesses, just like we’re a business. But where I get really uncomfortable, is knowing that I’m effectively subsidising someone else by paying higher interest rates than they are. And where I really get brassed off, is when I raise this with the bank and they pretty much tell me where to go. Knowing, probably, that changing banks is not just a case of flicking a switch and there are costs involved and so they think - or know - that I probably just won’t bother doing anything about it. So I don’t for a minute feel sorry for them for not reaching their sales targets, as Tony Alexander is saying. I don’t feel sorry for them because they are already doing pretty well, thank you very much. Most recent figures show that the combined profits in the banking sector in New Zealand was around the $10 billion mark. In recent times, ANZ - New Zealand’s biggest bank - posted a full-year profit of $2.3 billion - an eight percent increase on the year before. ASB’s profit went up 11 percent to $1.4 billion. And so it goes. I won’t go through the annual reports of every bank - but you get the gist. The banks are making truckloads of money. So much so, that some of them have been quick to make donations to the cyclone relief. Which is brilliant - there’s no way I’m going to knock them for that. ANZ has donated $3 million. ASB has donated $5 million. And good on them for doing that. I hope some of the other banks will follow suit. But it suggests, doesn’t it, that the banks - if they wanted to - could absorb some of the costs that they seem to be passing on to borrowers. And for me, that would be the simple act of flagging this under-the-line mortgage war that Tony Alexander is talking about today and working just as hard to look after their existing customers, as they are for new customers. You may have heard Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr on Newstalk ZB saying that he thinks the banks are taking the mickey a bit in terms of reducing services and all that. He didn’t use the term “taking the mickey” but that's what he was getting at. And, the way I heard it, he expects them to lift their game. And I totally agree - because, at the moment, I am in no doubt that the banks in this country are ripping us off, and need to up their game big time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.