ANZ on track despite intense competition, MacFarlane says
(15 February 2005 – Australia) In a quarterly markets update, ANZ chief executive John McFarlane said the bank was on track to deliver eight per cent EPS growth in 2005 but warned that margins remained under pressure.
McFarlane said the bank’s Personal business was tracking strongly, while Corporate was solid and Institutional was showing signs of improvement.
Personal was ANZ’s best performing business with retail deposits growing 10.2 percent over the past 12 months while residential lending grew 15.8 percent.
Deposits in the Corporate division had grown 12 percent over the past year with lending up 13 percent. Lending to small businesses was at a high level but had been impacted by a slowdown in the property market and extra competition coming in to the market.
The bank said asset growth in the Institutional business had been strong but affected by lower margins and increased competition while the Markets business had benefited from volatility in the foreign exchange markets.
McFarlane said the New Zealand business had been flat because of severe price competition in the mortgage market in the first quarter. However, customer attrition following the purchase of National Bank of New Zealand had been better than anticipated.
"Our performance in core businesses in Australia has been stronger than expected but New Zealand has been lower than expected," McFarlane said.
"We are investing in people, particularly in branch and specialist sales activities across Australia and New Zealand. However, tight control of business as usual costs has allowed us to maintain our focus on revenue growth by investing in high priority growth areas such as personal and small to medium business."
He said the bank would continue to look for partnering opportunities in Asia.
Personal was ANZ’s best performing business with retail deposits growing 10.2 percent over the past 12 months while residential lending grew 15.8 percent.
Deposits in the Corporate division had grown 12 percent over the past year with lending up 13 percent. Lending to small businesses was at a high level but had been impacted by a slowdown in the property market and extra competition coming in to the market.
The bank said asset growth in the Institutional business had been strong but affected by lower margins and increased competition while the Markets business had benefited from volatility in the foreign exchange markets.
McFarlane said the New Zealand business had been flat because of severe price competition in the mortgage market in the first quarter. However, customer attrition following the purchase of National Bank of New Zealand had been better than anticipated.
"Our performance in core businesses in Australia has been stronger than expected but New Zealand has been lower than expected," McFarlane said.
"We are investing in people, particularly in branch and specialist sales activities across Australia and New Zealand. However, tight control of business as usual costs has allowed us to maintain our focus on revenue growth by investing in high priority growth areas such as personal and small to medium business."
He said the bank would continue to look for partnering opportunities in Asia.
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