Wellington, Aug 10 NZPA - Kiwibank, National Bank and BNZ are the latest banks to lift their floating mortgage rates and cut longer term fixed rates after the Reserve Bank hiked the official cash rate by 25 percentage points to 3 percent last month.

Kiwibank -- joining the ranks of Westpac, TSB, ANZ and ASB -- is increasing its variable and floating rates by 0.25 points to 6.15 percent per annum.

The bank is lifting its six-month home loan rate by the same amount to 6.35 percent, but cutting its two-year rate by 0.30 points to 6.69 percent. It is also cutting its three-year rate, by 0.06 points to 7.19 percent, and its four-year rate by 0.10 points to 7.45 percent.

Fixed rates and floating rates for new customers will change from Wednesday, and floating rates for existing customers will change in two weeks.

National Bank is lifting its variable, floating and six-month rates by 0.25 points, to 6.24 percent, 6.20 percent and 6.35 percent respectively.

Its 18-month, two-year and three-year rates will decline by 0.19, 0.14 and 0.10 points respectively.

BNZ is also taking a similar tack, raising its variable and six-month rates by 0.25 points and cutting its 18-month to four-year rates by up to 0.20 points.

A surprisingly large rise in the unemployment rate in the June quarter, published last week, put pressure on the Reserve Bank to stop hiking interest rates.

Many economists believe the central bank will raise the official cash rate once more at its next policy review on September 16, then pause.

Some question that scenario and predict the monetary policy tightening from historic lows begun in June is now on hold.