Hard, smart work leads to profit at ANZ NZ

There’s no secret to our strong result – it’s because we continue to work hard and smart as a New Zealand business.

"There’s no secret to our strong result – it’s because we continue to work hard and smart as a New Zealand business.” - David Hisco

Our lending book continues to grow and contributed to revenues reaching $NZ4.08 billion.  We’ve also continued to keep a lid on costs. In fact, our expenses fell again and are now below 2010 levels. 

Focus

In recent years we’ve had a strong focus on improving the quality of our lending book and that’s starting to pay dividends – better quality means fewer credit losses.

The New Zealand business makes about 40 per cent of its profits from home loans and in this space we continue to be the market leader with our share now at 31.1 per cent. It’s competitive out there, though, with net interest margins still tight.

To help offset the margin pressure we’ve been good in 2017 in getting in deposits which were up 6 per cent. I’d like to see us continue to grow our deposits as part of having a healthy bank.

Digital

While not in the annual results, the 2017 financial year was also significant for the fact for the first time in our history ANZ’s brand consideration was number one out of all New Zealand banks - not just the big four.

Our Net Promoter and Customer Satisfaction scores also went up and I know this has been a focus for everyone on the front line.

Our digital story has also started to ramp up. ApplePay had its one year anniversary, GoMoney has more features and other initiatives are underway for our frontline staff and customers.

David Hisco is CEO, ANZ NZ