Gail Kelly, the Westpac Chief Executive has assured Australian home owners that this year, the bank will not boost mortgage rates above the official moves from the Reserve Bank. A first-half profit of $2.88 billion was booked by the bank yesterday, which is up 32%, which sets a record for Australia's second-largest bank.

Mrs. Kelly was prompted by the profits to protect the financial services industry from growing calls, that the planned resource super-profit tax of Government should be applied to the banks. This will make it earn no less than $20bn this year.

When Westpac increased its average standard variable rate by 45 basis points, it was attacked by Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan late last year. RBA had also lifted interest rates in December by just 25 basis points. The move was blamed on higher funding costs by Westpac, though the row was disputed by the Treasurer.

The bank among the four major banks has the maximum mortgage rates in the market. But according to Mrs. Kelly, Westpac's decision to extend the maturity of it's funding as well as lessening the competition for retail deposits, has tended to decrease the risk of the bank hiking rates outside of the RBA's official moves.

Mrs. Kelly said, "It's not on our agenda to increase our mortgage prices over and above what the RBA may do".