ANZ grows loan book and profits

The major reported a net statutory profit of $3.4 billion for the six months to 31 March 2014, a 15.1 per cent increase on the year before.

Operating income grew 6.5 per cent year-on-year to $9.5 billion, while the bank’s Australian loan book rose 6 per cent.

“ANZ had the strongest home loan growth of the major banks over the past year and has grown home loans at above system for 17 consecutive quarters,” ANZ said.

“The quality of the loan book continues to strengthen with the provision charge of $528 million 12 per cent lower.”

Chief executive Mike Smith said he was pleased with the results, but that competition was placing pressure on profit margins.

Meanwhile, the latest monthly banking statistics from APRA revealed that ANZ had a $318 billion loan book in March, which represented a 0.5 per cent increase on February.

The Commonwealth Bank grew 1.2 per cent to $484 billion, Westpac grew 0.7 per cent to $430 billion and NAB grew 0.3 per cent to $363 billion.

The leading non-majors were Suncorp, which rose 1.6 per cent to $46 billion, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank, which fell 0.5 per cent to $41 billion, and ING Direct, which rose 0.2 per cent to $41 billion.