{"id":114792,"date":"2025-11-03T00:51:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/114792\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T00:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:51:07","slug":"westpacs-profit-jumps-13-as-it-fattens-its-margins-ceo-says-average-borrower-is-ahead-on-their-mortgage-repayments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/114792\/","title":{"rendered":"Westpac\u2019s profit jumps 13%, as it fattens its margins; CEO says average borrower is ahead on their mortgage repayments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">The value of term deposits held by the bank fell by 2%, while transaction and savings deposits rose by 2% and 8% respectively. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">The other factor that supported the bank\u2019s profit growth was a $71 million positive swing in impairment provisions, as customers coped better than expected with the tough economic conditions. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">Westpac New Zealand chief executive Catherine McGrath said, \u201cOur data shows a higher proportion of home loan customers are at least three months ahead on their home loan repayments than six months ago, following nearly three years of decline\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe average customer is nearly 11 months ahead on repayments, with an average \u2018buffer\u2019 of almost $12,000. Housing arrears and the number of customers being supported by Westpac\u2019s Financial Hardship team are also down on the 2024 financial year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe think all this will add up to increasing consumer and business confidence and therefore higher spending to stimulate economic activity as we head into 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">McGrath explained how the Reserve Bank lowering the Official Cash Rate (OCR) had eased costs for borrowers. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIn the last week of October, our customers were rolling off an average fixed home loan rate 5.95% per annum,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cA customer with a $300,000 loan on a 15-year term rolling off that rate on to our current one-year special of 4.49% per annum would have an extra $230 a month in their back pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">The effects of a lower OCR are continuing to make their way through the economy, with Westpac saying that around 40% of fixed rate home loans will be repriced in the next six months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">Westpac economists forecast economic growth of 1.2% for 2025, rising to 3.0% in 2026 and 3.4% in 2027, as the full effects of rate reductions flow through to households and businesses. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MbfQjTgmSESMkkDykl\" style=\"display:none\">Jen\u00e9e Tibshraeny is the Herald\u2019s Wellington business editor, based in the parliamentary press gallery. She specialises in government and Reserve Bank policymaking, economics and banking.<\/p>\n<p>Listen and subscribe to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/1049-today-in-business-287718209\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/1049-today-in-business-287718209\/\" target=\"_blank\">Today in Business<\/a> podcast \u2013 the top headlines from the NZ Herald business team summarised and delivered by an artificial intelligence (AI) voice as an easily digestible recap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The value of term deposits held by the bank fell by 2%, while transaction and savings deposits rose&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[19838,74,3017,806,2177,36715,48039,138,3500,81742,71,12469,185,702,302,17090,57334,130,16400,111,139,69,90,1523,10142,4517,5340,19764,35995,81743,12000,11359,312,1361,165,17239,81741,379,2963],"class_list":["post-114792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-19838","tag-after","tag-ahead","tag-as","tag-average","tag-borrower","tag-borrowers","tag-business","tag-ceo","tag-fattens","tag-from","tag-interest","tag-is","tag-it","tag-its","tag-jumps","tag-margins","tag-more","tag-mortgage","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-over","tag-paid","tag-past","tag-profit","tag-received","tag-relative","tag-repayments","tag-rose","tag-savers","tag-says","tag-that","tag-their","tag-westpac","tag-westpacs","tag-year","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}