aug 4 reuters  three of australias big four banks raised their home loan variable interest rates on thursday after the countrys central bank hiked rates earlier this week commonwealth bank of australia cbaax australia and new zealand banking group anzax and westpac banking corp increased their mortgage rates to match the hike announced by the reserve bank of australia read more the new rates for cba and anz customers will take effect from aug 12 while westpacs rates will apply from aug 18 the banks also raised rates on some of their products for customers with savings accounts and deposits australias central bank lifted its cash rate by 50 basis points to 185 marking an eyewatering 175 basis points of hikes since may in the most drastic tightening since the early 1990s the countrys lenders expect to improve their margins and reap benefits from a rising interest rate environment cba is due to report its fullyear results next week while national australia bank ltd nabax anz and westpac are all set to issue quarterly updates reporting by harish sridharan and savyata mishra in bengaluru editing by shounak dasgupta