{"id":655597,"date":"2026-11-09T11:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/655597\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T11:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T11:54:18","slug":"anz-bank-nzs-profit-slips-on-expenses-and-impairments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/655597\/","title":{"rendered":"ANZ Bank NZ\u2019s profit slips on expenses and impairments"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANZ Bank NZ’s Ben Kelleher has issued his first set of results as chief executive. Photo \/ Supplied and Getty<\/p>\n

ANZ Bank NZ posted a lower annual bottom-line profit, weighed down by higher operating expenses from class-action provisioning, a credit impairment charge, and a weaker economic hedge.<\/p>\n

\n In the year to September 30, ANZ posted a statutory net profit after tax of $2.4 billion, from $2.5b a year earlier. Net
\n interest margin (NIM), a key gauge of profitability in the banking sector, fell 7 basis points to 2.52%.\n <\/p>\n

Chief executive Ben Kelleher said the result reflected continued progress on ANZ\u2019s 2030 strategy, with growth in customer base, lending and deposits.<\/p>\n

ANZ also continued investing in the business for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the economy is strengthening, it remains uneven. Kiwis have been through a tough few years, and global volatility is adding to ongoing cost-of-living pressures for customers,\u201d Kelleher said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, households and businesses are weathering the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

ANZ is the fourth of the four<\/a> Australian-owned banks to issue its annual numbers this year. All have seen bottom-line and NIM compression.<\/p>\n

Kelleher, the chief executive, first presented the results. He succeeded Antonia Watson<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n

More detail<\/p>\n

The result was achieved on operating income of $5.3b, from $5.2b, as net interest income and other operating income tiptoed higher.<\/p>\n

Operating expenses rose to $2.0b, from $1.8b. A credit impairment charge of $42 million, from a release of $25m, and an economic hedge of $53m, from $163m, affected the bottom line.<\/p>\n

ANZ posted total assets of $219.5b for the year, up from $210.0b. This included net loans and advances of $163.9b, from $158.7b.<\/p>\n

Lending for homes, agriculture and small business was up. <\/p>\n

Total liabilities were $198.7b, up from $190.1b, with $160.7b of these being deposits and other borrowings, up from $153.3b.<\/p>\n

Class action<\/p>\n

ANZ said its 9% higher expenses included the impact of a $125m provision, up from nil, relating to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act class action. <\/p>\n

The provision reflected ANZ\u2019s estimate of its maximum potential liability. The bank has appealed the High Court decision granting summary judgment against the bank to the representative plaintiffs. <\/p>\n

Excluding this, expense growth was 3%, with ongoing cost discipline helping to offset inflationary impacts while allowing for higher investment. <\/p>\n

Cash profit was up 1% excluding the class action provision.<\/p>\n

Last year, ASB settled<\/a> a separate class action with the law firm for $135m.<\/p>\n

Pressures<\/p>\n

ANZ said higher fuel costs, soft housing and labour markets, and interest rate rises continued to pressure households and businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re watching things closely, but for the most part people are managing higher costs and reprioritising their spending,\u201d Kelleher said.<\/p>\n

He said many of ANZ\u2019s home-loan customers were benefiting from earlier falls in fixed mortgages, with around 85% of fixed loans below 5% rates. <\/p>\n

About 47% of home-loan customers were at least six months ahead on repayments, and almost half of them had a savings buffer of $5,000 or more, Kelleher said.<\/p>\n

While some industries, such as hospitality, have been hit harder than others, the bank was seeing broad resilience across its business and agri customers. <\/p>\n

\u201cFurther pressure could come from higher input costs linked to conflict in the Middle East and the emerging El Ni\u00f1o event,\u201d Kelleher said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut high commodity prices, the Fonterra capital return and a lower New Zealand dollar mean the majority of agri customers enter the period in a strong position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Save<\/a>Share this article<\/p>\n

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Copy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANZ Bank NZ’s Ben Kelleher has issued his first set of results as chief executive. Photo \/ Supplied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[95,4765,12465,1643,76593,138,32294,321217,5341,6097,10668,27125,71,103104,13484,97810,236217,2513,111,139,69,3272,90,17177,8240,5340,321218,89818,13606,72809],"class_list":["post-655597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-and","tag-annual","tag-anz","tag-bank","tag-bottomline","tag-business","tag-charge","tag-classaction","tag-credit","tag-down","tag-economic","tag-expenses","tag-from","tag-hedge","tag-higher","tag-impairment","tag-impairments","tag-lower","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nzs","tag-on","tag-operating","tag-posted","tag-profit","tag-provisioning","tag-slips","tag-weaker","tag-weighed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655597","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=655597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}