AMP drops rates as competition intensifies

AMP has announced reductions to its variable owner-occupied and investment home loan interest rates for its Basic, Professional, Affinity and Select packages, effective for all new applications from Wednesday (22 August).

AMP’s owner-occupied home loans now start from 3.68 per cent, with investor home loans starting from 4.04 per cent and interest-only home loans starting from 4.66 per cent.

Over the past month, several lenders — including Commonwealth Bank, NAB, MyState Bank, Suncorp, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and AMP — have noted a rise in competition in the mortgage market.

Following the release of its half-year 2018 (HY18) financial results, AMP said: “Residential mortgage competition, particularly in the owner-occupied principal and interest market, remains intense.”

AMP’s decision to reduce interest rates comes despite an increase in the bank bill swap rate (BBSW), prompting several non-majors to increase interest rates over the past few months, with AMP also lifting rates on its interest-only and fixed rate offering by up to 40 basis points.

AMP appoints new group CEO

On Wednesday (22 August), the AMP board announced the appointment of Francesco De Ferrari as group chief executive officer, effective 1 December 2018.

Mr De Ferrari will join AMP after 17 years with Credit Suisse, where he served as CEO South East Asia and frontier markets, as well as head of private banking Asia Pacific.

The new appointee will replace Mike Wilkins, who has served as interim CEO since April 2018. Mr Wilkins will help manage the transition before returning to his role as a non-executive director on the AMP board.

Mr De Ferrari will also join the AMP board as an executive director at the first board meeting in January 2019.

[Related: AMP appoints new CEO]