CEO says bank is "well-capitalised to support a business-led recovery"
Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) reported “strong and stable” performance as it saw statutory net profits increase by 74% to $1.32 billion in the year to September 30, 2021.
The major bank attributed its full year performance to a strong bounce back in the New Zealand economy, with CEO Dan Huggins saying that the bank is “strong, stable, and well-capitalised to support a business-led recovery.”
Read more: BNZ releases OCR forecasts
“Business is in our DNA,” said Huggins. “We’re being flexible and innovative, and backing customers to find opportunities.”
The bank also revealed that loans and advances to customers increased by 7.5%, mainly driven by home loan growth. Additionally, BNZ helped 11,764 New Zealanders to renovate and invest in existing properties and supported the development of more than 1,600 new home builds.
“In the last 12 months we have supported 4,678 New Zealanders into their first home and partnered with Kāinga Ora on its First Home Partner shared ownership scheme that makes it easier for Kiwis to own their first home,” said Huggins.
Huggins also noted BNZ’s efforts to simplify its product range, saying the bank is supporting its customers to bank digitally and has reconfigured its operations to be simpler and more accessible.
“Three years ago, we promised to halve our banking product range and we will hit that milestone this year,” he said. “It frees up our people to support customers and speaks to our continued focus on reducing complexity and making banking easy.”
