Those invested in Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ) shares might remember recent comments by Australian federal treasurer Jim Chalmers who slammed banks for not passing interest rate rises onto savings accounts.
Well, ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott hit back at such claims this week, outlining the bank's moves to raise savings rates.
Let's take a closer look at what's going on with the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) bank.
At the time of writing, the ANZ share price is $23.42, up 3.17% so far today.
ANZ boss responds to treasurer's criticism
ANZ shares might be front of mind this week after the bank's CEO responded to criticism from the federal treasurer.
Speaking before the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) upped the official interest rate to 1.85% last week, Chalmers said decisions made by some banks to increase interest rates on loans without increasing those on savings accounts were "really disappointing". He told Sunrise:
I feel like people who are relying on their savings, they've been the principal victims of interest rates at historic lows for some time now.
There needs to be a silver lining in these interests going up and that's for savers, people who need and deserve better interest rates.
But Elliott clapped back at such suggestions, saying the comments were "a bit unfair".
The CEO told 3AW Mornings yesterday the bank "put[s] [its] best foot forward on a savings product", continuing:
We've got a savings account out there, at-call; 2.5% … You'll find that that's the highest rate of any major bank out there and I think that's exactly where it should be … given where the cash rate is.
The bank increased rates on ANZ Plus Save accounts with balances of less than $250,000 by 0.5% to 2.5% on Monday following the RBA's latest hike.
It also announced a new 11-month Advance Notice term deposit rate of 3% and noted it was reviewing other savings rates.
ANZ share price snapshot
The ANZ share price is the worst performing of the 'big four' bank stocks of 2022 so far.
It's slipped 14% year to date. Meanwhile, the ASX 200 has slumped 5.7% in that time.
The bank's shares have also dumped 18% over the last 12 months while the index has fallen 7%.
