BNZ's home loan market share down

That seems to confirm perceptions that the BNZ hasn't been as aggressive in the mortgage market lately.

The bank's mortgage book grew by $600 million, or 3.4%, to $18.107 billion in the three months, putting its market share at 16.3%, down from 16.34% at the end of June, using Reserve Bank of New Zealand figures as a proxy for the market.

The overall mortgage market grew $3.777 billion, or 3.5%, to $110.938 billion, the RBNZ figures show. Net profit for the three months jumped to $147 million from $76 million in the previous September quarter, bringing the bank's annual net profit increase to 14.9% to $541 million.

The most significant change in the quarter was that operating expenses dropped 22.4% to $197 million.

The notes to the accounts indicate that reflected write-offs of data processing assets in the previous year's result and a significant drop in related entity expenses.

BNZ's total assets grew $1.034 billion to $43.942 billion in the September quarter and by $4.632 billion in the year ended September.