TSB grows loan book on higher LVR business

The LVR table in TSB's March quarter disclosure statement shows its mortgage book grew by $19.4 million to $2.45 billion in the three months after growth of just $0.1 million in the December quarter. In the year ended March, the book grew by $84.2 million.

Assuming Reserve Bank data is a good proxy for the figures shown in banks' disclosure statement, that means TSB's share of mortgages written by registered banks rose to 1.44% at March 31 from 1.43% at December 31 and compared with 1.41% at March 31 last year.

TSB's mortgages with LVRs of 80% or below accounted for 79.8% of its book, down from 80% three months earlier after increasing $5.2 million in the March quarter. Mortgages with LVRs between 80% and 90% grew by $10 million in the latest three months and accounted for 7.8% of the book, up from 7.7% at December 31.

TSB's net profit in the three months ended March rose 7.l% to $10.9 million, taking annual net profit to $47.8 million, up 20% on the previous year. Charges against profit for bad debts eased to $0.4 million in the latest quarter from $1.5 million in the March quarter last year but that improvement was offset by a 34.9% jump in operating expenses to $14.2 million.