Mortgage News

Kiwibank's mortgage book grows fast but momentum slips

Thursday 31st of May 2012

However, the bank's 4.99% one-year fixed "special," which garnered significantly more than $200 million in new business between April 26 and May 31, is likely to boost its June quarter figures.

The loan-to-valuation ratio (LVR) table in Kiwibank's March quarter disclosure statement shows its mortgage book grew by $225 million to $11.43 billion in the three months, down from the $260 million growth in the December quarter.

It's also Kiwibank's smallest quarterly increase since the December quarter of 2010 when its book grew by $194 million.

In the year ended March, Kiwibank's mortgage book grew $1.1 billion, slightly more than the $1.03 billion growth the previous year.

Assuming Reserve Bank data will prove a reasonable proxy for the mortgage data shown in banks' disclosure statements, that means Kiwibank accounted for 17.6% of mortgages written by registered banks in the three months ended March and its share of market rose to 6.66% from 6.58% in December and 6.17% in March last year.

It doesn't appear Kiwibank's growth is due to any relaxation in credit standards: the part of its books with LVRs of 80% or less is where most of the growth came from, $227 million, while mortgages with LVRs of 90% or more shrank by $37 million.

Mortgages with LVRs of 80% or less account for 82.2% of Kiwibank's mortgage book while loans with 90% or more LVRs account for 3.4%.

Kiwibank's net profit for the quarter jumped to $23 million from just $1 million in the same quarter last year which had been hit by a blowout in charges for bad loans due to Christchurch's February 22, 2011 earthquake.

Charges for bad loans in the latest quarter fell to $9 million compared with $26 million in the year-earlier quarter. A 25% jump in net interest income to $65 million also boosted net profit in the March quarter.

 

Comments (0)
Comments to GoodReturns.co.nz go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved.