SBS's March quarter profit jumps despite ballooning bad loan charges

SBS Bank's net profit grew strongly in the March quarter even as its charges for bad loans jumped and its mortgage book increased marginally.

Tuesday, June 30th 2009, 4:56PM

by Jenny Ruth

SBS's March quarter general disclosure statement (GDS) shows net profit for the three months rose 42% to $4.8 million even though charges against profit for impaired loans increased by $4.1 million in the quarter.

That brought its full-year net profit to $12.1 million, down 15.8% from the previous year, and its impairment charges for the year to $12.4 million, higher than the profit figure.

Net interest income grew 3.6% for the year to $61.1 million.

SBS, which became a registered bank on October 7 last year, grew its mortgage book by $12.9 million in the quarter and by $201.2 million in the year ended March to $1.64 billion, making it the second smallest mortgage lending bank ahead of HSBC.

SBS's share of residential mortgages lent by registered banks apparently dropped to 1.09% at March 31 from 1.1% at December 31.

However, the figure for total mortgage lending by registered banks in the quarter, $149.87 billion, has been distorted by ANZ's decision to form a New Zealand branch in January, in addition to the Australian bank's existing New Zealand subsidiary.

Reserve Bank rules allow bank branches to report under Basel l rules and the total for mortgage lending in ANZ's branch's GDS, which represents all the bank's mortgage lending in New Zealand, includes business loans secured by residential mortgages. This means its figures can't be compared with the mortgage books disclosed by the other banks' GDSs, which are prepared under Basel ll rules and which exclude business loans secured by residential mortgages.

SBS's loan-to-value ratio (LVR) details show the proportion of mortgages with LVRs above 80% rose to 16.6% at March 31 from 15.7% at December 31. This reflects growth of the 100% government backed Welcome Home Loans SBS has funded to $180.6 million at March 31 from $174 million at December 31.

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