After the battering received during the Hayne royal commission, the banks are on firmer and more familiar ground when making the case for not passing through RBA rate cuts to borrowers. They have well rehearsed and not unreasonable arguments.

Most simply, the case made for lenders is that their cost of funding is not captured solely by movements in the official cash rate target. The big four banks fund around 30 to 40 per cent of their lending via international capital markets, and those costs go up and down according to global conditions.