Market heft gives ANZ lift

David Hisco says ANZ New Zealand's growing market share has contributed to its record profit.

Bank’s NZ arm reports 4% profit rise to $1.8b.

Market-share gains helped ANZ New Zealand drive a 4 per cent lift in annual profit to a record $1.8 billion.

Reporting the result yesterday, chief executive David Hisco said the bank had continued to grow its share of segments including home and business lending, credit cards, KiwiSaver membership and deposits.

ANZ had become the largest mortgage lender across all of New Zealand's major cities, Hisco added.

The bank posted an 8 per cent lift in lending to $114.4 million for the year to September 30, ahead of the 5.9 per cent loan growth BNZ reported.

Customer deposits rose 11 per cent to $84.9 million. Cash profit, which excludes non-core items, was steady compared with the previous year at $1.7 billion, while operating income rose 3 per cent to $3.9 billion.

"Customers are happy with the proposition so we think we can continue to have steady growth across our core markets," Hisco said.

A $76 million credit impairment provision, up from a $9 million write-back a year earlier, reflected a "normalisation" of impairment levels.

The bank was comfortable with the quality of its dairy loan book, despite the dairy price downturn and its effect on rural customers.

Hisco said ANZ's institutional business remained the market leader. ANZ's bumper result comes after BNZ cracked the $1 billion dollar profit mark for the first time.

ANZ, New Zealand's Australian parent of the same name, reported a 3 per cent rise in profit to A$7.5 billion.

Its shares closed A$28.17 on the ASX last night.

Westpac offers refunds

Westpac in Australia is offering refunds to more than 10,600 customers found to be paying for insurance they did not need.

The refunds come after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission found Westpac had collected premiums from some customers who did not have a loan or had already paid it off.

Westpac says the two credit insurance policies in question were designed to provide benefits in the event of death or illness as long as premiums were being paid, rather than for the life of a loan.

"ASIC felt that some customers may not be completely aware of this fact and we have been working with them since 2012 to come to this point," a representative said.

Westpac will offer to refund any premiums that were paid before a loan had been drawn upon, after it had been paid off, or when a customer did not intend to be covered.

The amount to be refunded will not be known until the affected customers respond to the bank's offer.

It is the latest instance of a refund from a major financial institution after the involvement of the corporate regulator.

Commonwealth Bank is currently finalising A$7.6 million ($8.1 million) in payments to 8400 regional customers who did not receive the lower fees and interest rates to which they were entitled.

- NZ Herald, AAP