ANZ Bank's New Zealand business is attributing a 31 percent jump in its first-half profit to cost cutting, market share gains in the mortgage market and strong lending to the commercial and export sectors.
Photo: RNZ
New Zealand's largest bank says it is also enjoying rapid growth in KiwiSaver.
ANZ posted an $853 million net profit for the six months ended March, up from $715 million in the same six months a year earlier.
The bank's operating expenses fell 5 percent and it wrote back $35 million in previous charges against profit for bad debts.
ANZ now claims nearly 26 percent of KiwiSavers as its customers with funds under management growing 15 percent in the latest six months.
It is also claiming to have improved its share of the mortgage market by 44 basis points, based on Reserve Bank figures to February.
As Radio New Zealand has already reported, ANZ's actual share of the mortgage market grew 27 basis points to just over 31 percent in calendar 2013.
Chief executive David Hisco says his bank continues to work at simplifying the business and that completing the transition of the National Bank brand into the ANZ brand last year has achieved significant cost savings and productivity gains.
The New Zealand operations accounted for 18 percent of the Australian-based parent bank's operating profits in the latest six months.