Aussie regulator to probe mortgage rate 'profiteering' by big banks

Sydney

AUSTRALIA'S corporate regulator said on Thursday it will investigate whether the country's big banks are using a regulatory push to curb a potential housing bubble as an excuse to profiteer through increased mortgage rates.

Investigators would focus on whether the banks' propensity for recent out-of-cycle interest rate rises have been excessive and whether their public justifications had been "inaccurate and perhaps false and misleading", Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) deputy chairman Peter Kell told a parliamentary committee. "It is an issue we are concerned about ... we will have to look at any particular statement carefully," Mr Kell said.