Heartland says NZ needs greater control of its finance industry
"Heartland is locally funded and not directly exposed to the volatility in offshore markets," the company said in an update for investors.
New Zealand needs a strong rural lending specialist and not enough credit capacity is dedicated to the productive sector, the company says.
Heartland had $2.4 billion in total assets at December 31 and its rural loan book, spread across 1,720 rural accounts, is $470 million with an average loan size of $266,000. Heartland bought PGG Wrightson Finance last year.
The largest part of the company's loan book is consumer lending on mortgages and car finance with loans totalling $967 million and an average loan size of $21,000. The lion's share of its funding, $1.31 billion, comes from retail term deposits, reflecting its origins. (It was created through the merger of Marac Finance and three building societies.)
Click the button below to subscribe and will have free unlimited access for a limited time to full article and all other articles on the site.
You will also be able to comment on articles on Good Returns.
![[The Wrap] What the heck is happening at the FMA?](https://goodreturns.publit.io/file/c_fill,w_300,h_200/a6c3bc06-6401-44de-96e2-286c090e132d.jpg)