ASB Bank's mortgage book growths for first in 8 quarters

The loan-to-valuation ratio (LVR) table in the bank's latest disclosure statement shows its mortgage book grew $67 million to $37.43 billion in the three months ended March.

All the growth came in the part of the portfolio with LVRs below 80% and loans with LVRs above 80%. Loans with LVRs above 90% shrank by $1,065 million and now make up 5.9% of the mortgage book compared with 8.8% three months earlier.

ASB has only been reporting these figures in their current form since its March 2011 statement and this is the first quarter since then to show a shrinking of loans with LVRs above 90% - in the March 2011 quarter, they accounted for 6.2% of the portfolio.

Loans with LVRs below 80% in the latest quarter rose by $902 million and those with LVRs between 80% and 90% rose by $230 million.