Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has parted company with ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft over the issue of tracker mortgages, saying market forces should determine whether such products are offered.Last week, Medcraft said the big banks should introduce the product, a variable rate mortgage whose rate follows the movement in the cash rate.He said a mortgage priced at a fixed margin above the cash rate would end confusion and lack of transparency in the home loan market.Speaking at the Citi Investment Conference in Sydney yesterday, Lowe said he did not support the idea of mandating tracker loans.Lowe said: "I have confidence in the operation of the market. If there is demand and it can be offered at a reasonable price the product would emerge. The question is whether institutions can offer it at a price that consumers will want."Earlier this month, ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott told the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics that such a product would have to be priced at a premium.Elliott said: "We have looked at it. There is a high risk for us in our ability to fund it. We are locked into that margin. We would have to price for that risk and the product would have a premium."Lowe spent some time talking about the RBA's view on household balance sheets."Over the course of 2016 there has been some lessening of the concerns that were building up last year. Aggregate credit growth slowed, as did the rate of house price appreciation. Lending standards were also tightened."These developments meant that the board felt that the lowering of the cash rate would improve prospects for sustainable growth and achieving the inflation target without creating unacceptable risks on the financial side."The recent data on the housing market are mixed. Prices seem to be increasing quite briskly again in some areas, although are falling in others. Growth in rents is very low and there is a big increase in housing supply still to come."To add to the picture, credit growth is still exceeding income growth, although by a smaller margin than last year."It is also noteworthy that much of this credit is being used to finance new housing construction, rather than consumption. It is a complex picture."