Karl Stefanovic erupts at Australian Banking Association boss Anna Bligh over ... trends now

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Karl Stefanovic has grilled the CEO of the Australian Banking Association as Aussies struggle to keep up with rising interest rates.

The RBA's latest quarter of a percentage point increase on Tuesday took the cash rate to a new 10-year high of 3.35 per cent - with Governor Philip Lowe signalling further increases in coming months. 

ANZ and NAB have already announced they would pass on the interest rate hike, with other major banks expected to follow.

Speaking to the head of the ABA, Anna Bligh, on Thursday morning, Stefanovic questioned if banks were making profits by 'manipulating the pace of reductions and rises'.

Ms Bligh said Australia's banks would make a 'healthy profit' but argued it would benefit Australians.

'That's a good thing for the country. Their profits are going into your superannuation fund and the superannuation funds of hundreds of thousands of Australians,' she said on the Today Show.

'I don't think Australia wants an economy with failing banks.'

Stefanovic then gloomily responded: 'Forgive me for not celebrating'.

The breakfast show host had earlier said Australians were yet to see any of the major banks give families 'a break' when it came to interest rates.

Stefanovic then asked Ms Bligh if big banks passing on the hikes would help tip the country into recession.

'That's something that the Reserve Bank is really looking at and taking into account every time they meet,' she responded.

'The minutes of their meetings are telling us they're very mindful they don't want to go too far but they will keep doing what they need to do to bring inflation down.'

But Stefanovic hit back and said the banks were lifting rates twice as fast as they were cutting them, and

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