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In our previous article, What a Decade of Floating Rates Tells Us About Agri Finance Confidence, we explored how floating interest rates have behaved over time and how bank appetite has shifted in response to rising rates. The core message was this: while interest rates have moved in cycles, the bigger issue has been how confidence—both from banks and farmers—has fluctuated alongside them.
Now, we want to take that discussion a step further.
Same graph. One big addition.
This time, we’ve layered in a second line—the red one. This represents the non-competitive floating rate, or in plain terms, the rate paid by a farmer whose credit wasn’t quite as good (or wasn’t articulated well enough) and hasn't actively engaged in a competitive lending process. It’s someone who, for whatever reason, hasn't negotiated, hasn’t benchmarked, and hasn’t brought an advocate like NZAB to the table.
The green line, as before, is the competitive rate—what’s available when a farmer actively shops their deal, presents a strong case, and gets support to navigate the lending environment.