(16 August 2017 – Australia) ANZ Bank has announced a third-quarter profit of 5.3 percent above the previous two quarters, although it said a new mortgage levy would squeeze margins.
The bank said cash net profit, which excludes various one-off items, was A$1.79 billion for the three months to June 30.
Further, the ANZ’s bad debt provision declined to A$243 million. Excluding provisions, profit grew just 0.3 percent from the average of the prior two quarters, while revenue fell 0.3 percent, signs cost-cutting helped prop up profit growth.
CEO Shayne Elliott said the bank had been cutting its business lending book and trying to build its owner-occupier mortgage book, which grew faster than the industry average.
“We've been growing our business in owner-occupied home loans much faster than the market and actually really reweighting our portfolio towards that,” he said.
The net interest margin increased by a fifth of a percentage point, not counting a weaker contribution from markets.
“It's a very, very low loan-loss charge, so pre-provisioning it probably was a slight miss,” CLSA analyst Ed Henning said.
“The number (including bad debt provisions) will probably slightly beat the consensus expectations for the cash NPAT.”