Here are but three of the major banks in Australia that drain the population financially by their exorbitant fees. These banks, including the ANZ, don't give a hoot about pensioners or the battling mortgage account holder. Fees, fees, fees, how much money can be made off the public that is what these businesses are all about!

And yet they manage to post earnings of more than $3 billion Aus dollars profit each, this year. I honestly do not know how the board and their chairmen sleep at night.
Now the banks want to up interest rates whether or not Federal Reserve Bank raises rates or not. And the United States just lowered their rates.

The US Federal Reserve gave investors what they wanted today; lowering short-term rates for the second time in two months, but it quietly warned Wall Street not to expect to assume that more reductions are ahead.

The move, to reduce short-term rates by a quarter points to 4.5 percent, was aimed at preventing the meltdown in housing from crippling the rest of the economy. But the vote was not unanimous, reflecting disagreement among policymakers about the risks that confront the economy.

Investors were generally pleased, and stocks were up modestly after briefly giving up most of their gains for the day immediately after the announcement. But Treasury prices fell, reflecting some concerns that lower interest rates could stoke inflation. Oil prices surged nearly 4 percent and gold futures were up about 1 percent. The dollar modestly weakened against other major currencies.

In a statement accompanying its decision, the Fed acknowledged that the housing collapse is likely to slow the economy, but it said “some inflation risks remain” and that the risks of inflation were “roughly balanced” against the risk of slower growth.