By Gareth Vaughan
Westpac New Zealand looks to have grown housing loans by more than any other bank, bar run away leader ANZ New Zealand, in the June quarter with the bank's profit up strongly.
Westpac NZ's latest General Disclosure Statement (GDS) shows the bank's residential mortgages - based on its loan-to-valuation ratio (LVR) disclosure, up NZ$326 million in the three months to June 30 to NZ$35.803 billion.* With ASB the only major bank yet to issue its June quarter GDS, that trails just ANZ's mammoth NZ$1.09 billion growth.
Of Westpac NZ's home loan growth, a combined NZ$222 million came from loans with LVRs above 70%, with NZ$133 million in the above 70% but below 80% LVR category, NZ$77 million in the over 80% but below 90% category, and NZ$12 million from loans with LVRs of more than 90%. In the other two LVR categories disclosed - below 60% and above 60% but below 70% - lending rose NZ$82 million and fell NZ$22 million, respectively.
Other major banks' disclosure statements have shown BNZ grew residential mortgages with LVRs both between 80% and 89% and over 90%, and ANZ (which includes the National Bank) and Kiwibank grew in the 80% to 89% range but fell above 90%.
Profit at a bigger Westpac NZ surges 81%; Dividends NZ$480 mln in 9 months
Following on from its record half-year profit, which rose 24% to NZ$333 million, Westpac NZ's June quarter unaudited profit after tax rose NZ$78 million, or 81%, to NZ$174 million from NZ$96 million in the same period of last year. The profit surge was helped by a NZ$33 million, or 52%, drop in impairment charges on loans. It also comes after Australian parent Westpac Banking Corporation transferred more than NZ$6 billion worth of assets and over NZ$5 billion of liabilities to Westpac NZ last October to bring the bank in line with Reserve Bank of New Zealand bank registration rules.
Westpac NZ's unaudited profit after tax for the nine months to June 30 was NZ$465 million, NZ$178 million more than in the same period of last year, and NZ$32 million ahead of audited 2011 full-year profit. The bank's record annual profit is NZ$562 million in the year to September 2008, meaning NZ$98 million in the fourth quarter this year will see it top this and join rivals ASB and ANZ NZ in posting record annual profit this year.
Westpac NZ paid its parent NZ$480 million worth of dividends in the nine months to June.
Meanwhile, Westpac NZ's net interest income rose NZ$79 million, or 25%, in the June quarter to NZ$395 million, and net operating income increased NZ$87 million, or 22%, to NZ$479 million. Operating expenses rose NZ$15 million, or 8%, to NZ$206 million.
Deposit growth more than double gross lending increase
Total gross loans rose NZ$482 million in the June quarter to NZ$59.366 billion, less than half the NZ$1.009 billion increase in total deposits to NZ$41.845 billion.
Westpac NZ's total assets increased NZ$1.7 billion to NZ$69.580 billion and total liabilities rose NZ$1.7 billion to NZ$63.872 billion. Total equity was down NZ$43 million to NZ$5.708 billion. Westpac NZ's tier one capital adequacy ratio, representing shareholder's funds, fell to 11.1% at June 30 from 11.7% at March 31, and its total capital ratio fell to 13.6% from 13.7%. The Reserve Bank mandated minimums are 6% and 8%, respectively.
As of June 30, Westpac NZ still had NZ$2.039 billion of debt on issue guaranteed by the New Zealand taxpayer through the Crown wholesale funding guarantee scheme.
Meanwhile, 90 day past due assets fell NZ$30 million to NZ$196 million in the June quarter, and Westpac NZ's individually impaired assets rose NZ$58 million to NZ$955 million.
*This excludes NZ$6.4 billion worth of undrawn commitments and other off-balance sheet exposures.
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