Few
financiers yesterday rushed to advise customers, or third-party
promoters of their products, of the detail or timing of any changes in
interest rates that will follow the decision of the Reserve Bank of
Australia yesterday to increase official interest rates by 0.25
percentage points to 5.75 per cent.

One bank that did so was
Commonwealth Bank, whose commercial finance arm, or at least that
section that deals with finance brokers, emailed the higher rates to
clients less than three minutes after the RBA’s announcement yesterday
morning. CBA raised commercial lending rates in line with the rise in
official rates.

Members Equity Bank was another lender quick to
notify higher lending rates for business finance, though all lenders
will increase rates across the board soon enough.

Another business lender to raise interest, effective yesterday, was AWB for its harvest finance.