The Australian-owned bank rebounded from the previous year's profit fall. File photo. Photo: AFP
Westpac Bank's full year profit increased 10 percent as it lent more, had higher margins, and lower bad debts.
The Australian-owned bank rebounded from the previous year's profit fall as lending steadied and interest rates started to fall, although its expenses increased at twice the rate of its income.
- Net profit down $1.055b vs $963m
- Net income $2.86b vs $$2.77b
- Expenses $1.37b vs $1.30b
- Impairment charge $27m vs $135m
- Net interest margin 2.17% vs 2.13%
"We've worked hard to help customers through challenging economic conditions, and are well positioned to support their growth aspirations as the economy improves," Westpac NZ chief executive Catherine McGrath said.
Westpac mortgage lending rose 3 percent and business lending was up 2 percent, while the amount set aside for bad debts was a fifth of the previous year.
McGrath said it has been making progress in the business lending sector, and has also noticed an increase in mortgage applications in line with the lift in consumer confidence.
"Or business lending was well above system growth in the second half of the year, and we increased our face-to-face interactions with business, corporate and agri customers by 65 percent to better understand their needs."
She said about a quarter of its fixed home borrowers would be on lower rates by the end of the year, with about three quarters in a year, which would deliver considerable savings.
Scam prevention
McGrath said the amount lost to scams and frauds was lower than the year before despite a 12 percent rise in cases reported.
"Of every $10 of known fraud and scams that touched our systems, we prevented, recovered or reimbursed $9."
She said Westpac had increased its investment in anti-scam measures with improved industry co-operation, technology, and staff involvement, but more needed to be done a cross a broad front..
"In particular we want to see social media companies like Meta and big tech platforms like Google act faster to flag and remove scam content, to help stop scams at their source."
Investment and economy
McGrath said Westpac had geared more of its lending to community and affordable housing, sustainability for business and agriculture, and solar power facilities.
She said a gradual economic recovery was expected next year on the back of slower inflation and interest rates, but with risks.
"The green shoots of recovery we've seen in recent confidence surveys are balanced out by rising unemployment, ongoing geopolitical risks and cost pressures on businesses."