National Australia Bank reduces standard by 20 points

National Australia Bank (NAB) has cut its standard variable home loan rate by 20 basis points, following the central bank's 25 basis point cut on Tuesday, the Australian major bank announced Wednesday. NAB will reduce its standard variable home loan rate to 6.38 percent from Dec. 10, from 6.58 percent before the cut, the bank said. The bank will also cut its rate on standard variable business lending products by 20 basis points. NAB Executive Personal Banking Lisa Gray said the bank sought to strike the right balance between the cost of funding and offering competitive rates to customers. "The impact of deposit and wholesale funding costs remain high, resulting from instability in the global economy and low confidence domestically," she said in a statement. "Our new rate is effective from Dec. 10 and continues our delivery of our pledge to offer the lowest standard variable home loan rate of the major banks for 2012."