Chief executive says bank has been “run off our feet” in mortgage business
ANZ has picked up market share in its biggest business – the Australian mortgage market – and posted record home-loan volumes in New Zealand, the bank has reported.
ANZ this week showed the strongest revenue trends among the big four banks, reporting an unaudited statutory net profit for the December quarter of $1.624 billion, a significant spike form its first-half quarterly average of $773 million, The Australian reported.
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott credited the strong performance to a disciplined strategy execution and a well-balanced portfolio of businesses.
“We’re pleased to have achieved these results for shareholders while also helping customers in difficulty and providing the vital lending needed to support the economic recovery,” Elliott told The Australian. “All out major businesses performed well through the quarter.”
Elliott said ANZ’s New Zealand business had been “really run off our feet there in terms of supporting Kiwis into homes.”
ANZ has also seen most of its COVID-19-related deferrals resume repayments. The bank gave deferrals to about 145,000 home-loan and commercial customers in Australia and New Zealand to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. In Australia, 84% of deferred home loans have rolled off, with 98% returning to repayments, The Australian reported. In New Zealand, 92% of deferred mortgages have rolled off, with 86% returning to repayments.
Read more: ANZ releases results – and they’re very good
Chief risk officer Kevin Corbally said that a significant portion of the home loans still on deferral were due to roll off this month.
“These were customers who just needed time … given the impacts of COVID, customers who were performing well prior to the lockdowns, et cetera, and would highly likely return to performing once they emerged from these lockdowns,” he told The Australian. “We have been in regular dialogue with these customers throughout the deferral period and will again contact them several weeks out from the end of their deferral period to discuss how they’re tracking. The indications are that those that need more help will be relatively small, and therefore it will be manageable.”
An Australian Banking Association analysis of data from the nation’s biggest banks found that 91% of deferred loans have resumed repayments. Five percent of deferred business loans and 13% of home loans are still on repayment pauses, according to the ABA.
