Well the Reserve Bank has indicated it's in no rush to cut interest rates, but that hasn't stopped the nation's big banks cutting their term deposit rates.

On August 14, the Commonwealth Bank cut the interest rate on many of its term deposits.

"Over the last few weeks we've seen a number of term deposit changes," Canstar's director of data insights, Sally Tindall said.

"The vast majority of those changes have been down, not up."

CBA term deposits on 13 to 17-month to 23-month contacts face the biggest reductions of up to half a percentage point … down to 4 per cent.

Its 12-month term deposit product will also have a point-4 of a per cent interest rate cut to 4.5 per cent.

NAB followed on Monday with similar cuts to its 13-17 month account and longer-term products.

The ANZ made the deepest cut on its 11-month term deposit account to 4 per cent.

Most of the cuts to The cuts apply to balances less than $2 million.

"They do not affect anyone that is already currently on a term deposit contract," Sally Tindall said.

"It does affect people who are potentially rolling off their term deposit in coming weeks, or anyone that is looking at moving their nest egg over to a terms deposit for some peace of mind."

Broadly, the changes reduce the interest on a $100,000 deposit by up to $730 over 11 months.

Diana Mousina is the AMP's deputy chief economist.

She says the banks are cutting their term deposit rates ahead of expected interest rate cuts later this year by the Reserve Bank.

What's confusing though is that the Reserve Bank's August meeting Minutes state clearly the RBA is in no rush to lower interest rates.

So why would the commercial banks think interest rates ARE coming down?

"So it's just driven by what the Reserve Bnak says and does, or what's going on in our own market, it's also driven by global developments."

And that includes strong signs the US Federal Reserve -- the US equivalent of the RBA -- is set to embark on a series of interest rate cuts.

But the fact remains the big commercial banks are cutting savings rates outside of any Reserve Bank interest rate cutting cycle.

"I mean I do think it's a little bit odd that the banks have started cutting their deposit rates right now given that we're not actually in a cutting cycle."

"It's odd and cheeky.

"And I guess partly it's a normalisation of the deposit rates.

"We did see some deposit rates rise more, than what the RBA was hiking, across some banks," Diana Mousina said.

Indeed the CBA has paid more than $20 billion in interest to depositors in the 12 months to June 30.

Despite the income cut for savers, there's no evidence of mortgage relief for borrowers.

For anyone looking for a better deal from a bank, Canstar's Sally Tindall, like the current Reserve Bank governor, suggests bank customers shop around.

It should also be noted that the interest rate on CBA's nine-month term deposit has risen recently to to 4.8 per cent.

And both NAB and ANZ increased the eight-month term deposit rate to 4.8 per cent.