When conflict erupts in one corner of the world, its tremors travel through the invisible architecture of global finance, arriving quietly at the doorsteps of ordinary households. New Zealand's two largest banks, ANZ and Westpac, have raised fixed home loan rates — some by as much as 0.26 percentage points — citing the rising cost of borrowing on wholesale markets unsettled by Middle East tensions. It is a reminder that in a deeply interconnected world, the price of peace, or its absence, is never paid in one place alone.