Calls for banks to drop mortgage rates- while they bring in record profits.

They are scraping off an extra $2.2-billion dollars annually, from a 17 percent rise in lending profits caused by rising interest rates.

Squirrel Chief Executive David Cunningham says he believes the slow housing market pushed the margin this high.

He says shareholders want steady profits, and rising share-prices regardless of the lack of market growth.

"So the only way to deliver those profits that the market expects- or your masters in Australia expect, in the case of our major New Zealand banks- is to lift the price."

LISTEN ABOVE