Prepayment penalties Having discussed the rules that would promote affordability, I want to say a word about our proposed rule on prepayment penalties. These penalties can take a toll on consumers who have riskier loans, and many consumers may not even be aware their loans have a penalty.
While that was a new low for Australian official interest rates – the previous low had been 4.75 per cent in the late 1990s – it was a relatively muted response compared with the very large cuts in interest rates that occurred elsewhere in the world.