Australia's ANZ posts record FY profit, investors fret over mortgage pressure – Reuters

Nov 13 (Reuters) – Australia’s fourth-biggest lender ANZ (ANZ.AX) on Monday posted a record annual profit on a surge in demand for institutional banking services, but said it was struggling to boost sales of home loans. The company announced that its margins were flat and the stock price fell due to an aggressive campaign aimed at the company. lower.

As Australian banks shift focus from their traditional revenue stream of home loans, where rising interest rates have increased competition, ANZ will benefit from its institutional payments platform, which it says processes some of the world’s largest cross-border transactions. Is receiving.

This boosted the operating profit of the bank’s institutional division more than its retail division in dollar terms from March to September, with the Melbourne-listed company’s annual profit up 14% to A$7.4 billion ($4.7 billion). , and narrowly missed the visible numbers. Alpha consensus forecast is A$7.56 billion.

But analysts said the bank’s retail arm, the only one of Australia’s so-called “big four” financial institutions that has continued to offer cash handouts to attract home loan customers looking for cheaper deals, had weaker-than-expected profit margins. He expressed concern that the market is rapidly shrinking. .

Despite ANZ’s institutional arm increasing its net interest margin (NIM) – the interest it collects on loans minus the interest it pays to depositors – the bank’s overall NIM fell in the six months to September. It fell 10 basis points to 1.65%, which was higher than NIM’s report. This month, it comes from rivals Westpac (WBC.AX) and National Australia Bank (NAB.AX).

ANZ shares were down 3.1% by mid-point against the overall market (.AXJO), which was flat on concerns that banks were sacrificing profitability for mortgage volume, which has lagged in previous years. It fell.

E&P Capital analyst Ajib Khan said: “NIM pressures, particularly driven by ANZ’s relatively aggressive growth in Australian housing lending, raise questions about margin and volume management in the Australian retail sector. I’m anticipating that.”

ANZ CEO Shane Elliott rules out giving up margins to grow mortgage growth faster than the market, deliberately slowing mortgage growth as competition eats into profits He objected to comments from other banks that said that the

“The fact that other companies have withdrawn from the market. I think a lot of people are justifying the loss of their company’s market share,” he said in a phone call with reporters.

“That’s for them to answer, not for me. All I know is that we’re getting more customers than ever before.”

ANZ announced a final dividend of 94 Australian cents per share, up from 74 cents a year ago.

($1 = 1.5721 Australian Dollar)

(This article has been re-edited to correct a typo in the heading)

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