Three Major Banks Withhold Rate Cut Details from Savings Customers
- admin928749
- May 21
- 2 min read
Millions of Australians are still in the dark about how much interest they’ll earn on their savings, following yesterday’s cash rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
Right after the RBA announced a 25-basis-point cut, the big four banks wasted no time letting variable home loan customers know they’d be passing on the savings—between May 30 and June 3. But when it comes to savings account rates? Crickets—except from Westpac, which was the only one to say how their savings rates would change.
ANZ, NAB, and CommBank haven’t said a word yet, but experts expect they’ll also cut deposit rates soon.
“If history is anything to go by, most savings rates will be getting a haircut over the next few weeks,” said Sally Tindall, data insights director at Canstar.
Tindall added that while Westpac’s changes might not thrill its savings customers, at least they were upfront about it—unlike the others.
“The other big banks should take a leaf out of Westpac’s book and let their customers know what’s coming,” she said.
Australians have stashed a record $1.6 trillion in savings accounts as of March, according to APRA—that’s up $8.3 billion in just one month and over $125 billion more than last year. But despite all that money sitting in the bank, interest rates are slipping, and many savers are actually losing ground once inflation is factored in.
“With savings accounts returning just around 1.5%, and term deposits averaging only 3.1%, people are barely keeping up with inflation—currently sitting at 2.4%,” said Mark Zukerman, director at Vado Private.
He warned that once cost-of-living support measures end, inflation could tick up again—further reducing the real returns on savings.
In April 2025, the average online savings account returned just 1.55%, with one-year term deposits offering around 4% at best, and 3.2% for three-year terms. As Zukerman put it:
“Those are not attractive returns.”
And the outlook isn’t great either. The market expects another rate cut by August, and at least two more by February, which could bring the official cash rate down to 3.10%.
“The May cash rate cut might be a reason to pop the champagne for mortgage holders,” Tindall said, “but for savers, it’s more like a lead balloon.”
She added that while a few savings accounts still offer rates starting with a "5", we’re basically clinging to those for dear life.
“With most banks still silent on savings rates, no news isn’t good news. Expect those rates to start falling soon—probably within the next two to three weeks.”
Stay tuned with Aus News Lanka – the leading platform for news for Australians.
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