Australian lender ANZ reports rise in Q3 loans and deposits

By Scott Murdoch

(Reuters) -Australia’s ANZ Group said on Friday its net loans and customer deposits rose in the third quarter as lending for home purchases and businesses stayed strong, extending a run of growth among major domestic banks.

In a limited quarterly trading update, ANZ said its credit risk-weighted assets edged higher due to growth in its retail bank’s home lending, and institutional lending. ANZ does not publish quarterly profit figures, unlike most of its major rivals.

ANZ shares climbed more than 1% to A$32.88 in mid-morning trading, outpacing a 0.2% gain in the benchmark S&P/ASX200.

The Australian economy has held steady. Business surveys are generally upbeat and consumer spending has picked up in the last couple of months as lower borrowing costs and past tax cuts feed through to incomes.

ANZ, Australia’s fourth-largest bank by market value, said its common equity tier 1 ratio, a key metric of spare cash, rose by 16 basis points since March to 11.9%.

Mortgage payments in Australia past their due date for 90 or more days rose 4 bps to 88 bps compared to last year, the banking group said in the trading update.

Home loan delinquencies across each of the major Australian banks are considered low, despite high cost of living pressures.

ANZ reported an A$19 billion ($12.35 billion) boost to customer deposits in the quarter, driven by an 8% increase in institutional deposits. Its net loans and advances grew 2%.

Market leader Commonwealth Bank, and Westpac, this week reported lending and deposit growth in their full-year and third-quarter results.

ANZ’s chief executive Nuno Matos ordered last week a strategic review into the bank’s operations, focused on the integration of Suncorp’s banking business into the organisation after its 2024 acquisition.

Suncorp’s risk-weighted assets stood at A$34.1 billion at the end of the June quarter, up slightly from the previous quarter, the trading update showed.

Matos, who became chief executive in May, is expected by analysts to deliver a strategic briefing on the bank’s outlook before its full-year results are published on November 10.

($1=A$1.5389)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney, Additional reporting by Rishav Chatterjee and John Biju in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Muralikumar Anantharaman)