CBA won't commit to further rate cuts

COMMONWEALTH Bank of Australia says it is unable to guarantee matching any further reduction in official interest rates.

CBA won't commit to further rate cuts

COMMONWEALTH Bank of Australia, the country's largest home lender, says it is unable to guarantee matching any further reduction in official interest rates.

Financial markets are fully pricing a further quarter of a percentage point reduction in the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA's) cash rate when its board meets next month.

"We can't be in a position to make any comment,'' Commonwealth Bank of Australia's James Sheffield told a parliamentary hearing in Canberra.

"The volatility in the market is huge at the moment,'' he told parliament's house economics committee which is conducting and inquiry of competition in the banking and non-banking sectors.

"You have got to wait for the theoreticals to become real and make a decision, balance out the interests of our customers, obviously pass on as much to our customers as we can afford, but you must also bear in mind we are on very turbulent waters at the moment.''

Retail banks did match the RBA's rate cut earlier this month, the first reduction by the central bank in nearly seven years.