(11 February 2010 – New Zealand) CBA’s New Zealand subsidiary, ASB, has reported a NZ$10 million (A$7.92) loss for the six months ended 31st December 2009.The loss was attributed to a tax settlement reached late last year with the Inland Revenue over four structured finance transactions; the total agreed upon tax bill cost ASB NZ$264 million.
Excluding the tax bill, the bank reported a profit of NZ$199 million after tax, down 16.4 percent on the corresponding period last year.
The bank’s net interest margin decreased by 1 basis point to 1.63 percent in December from the previous six month period; the drop was due to higher funding costs and higher interest rates paid on retail deposits.
Impaired loans nearly doubled to NZ$127 million compared to December last year.
Total provisioning for bad and doubtful debt increased from NZ$157 million to NZ$340 million, accounting for about 0.53 percent of total assets.
In the NZ market, demand for borrowing fell, leading to a decrease in the bank’s total assets slightly to NZ$64.6 billion. Despite this, total lending grew at ASB by 3 percent to NZ$54.1 billion.
Total deposits rose to NZ$57.6 billion from the previous year, with retail deposits also experiencing an increase of 2.9 percent to NZ$3.1 billion.