ANZ's best quarter since 2007 hard work: Thompson

ANZ Bank's best quarter in the mortgage market since 2007 was the result of a lot of hard work going back several quarters, says retail division managing director Kerri Thompson

Monday, May 28th 2012, 4:05PM

by Jenny Ruth

"It seems to have all come to fruition in a quarter, but it's taken a lot of time and work," Thompson says.

That includes branding and advertising, about 50 policy changes, 30 of them relating directly to mortgages and hiring more mobile mortgage managers.

ANZ now has about 70 mobile mortgage managers, up from about 50 two years ago and another 500 staff across its national branch network about to do home loans, she says.

The bank is also extending its branch network and has just opened a new branch at Takanini in Auckland.

"Customers want to know if they need to eyeball someone they can do so," Thompson says. While many customers these days do internet banking, "even the most affluent and sophisticated customers we have still use the branch at least four times a year.

Applying for home loans is one activity customers either want to do in a branch or with a mobile mortgage manager, she says.

ANZ's March quarter disclosure statement released last week shows its mortgage book grew by $437 million to $51.46 billion in the three months ended March after shrinking by $148 million in the December quarter and shrinking by $162 million in the September quarter.

Based on Reserve Bank figures, it accounted for 32.2% of net new mortgage lending by registered banks in the quarter, the first time it has grown market share since 2007. At the end of March, its market share was 30%.

The disclosure statement showed most of the growth - $299 million or 68.4% of net new lending - was in the 80% to 89% loan-to-valuation ratio (LVR) area and Thompson says most of the growth within that band was on 80% to 85% LVRs.

Thompson says after pulling back to restricting lending to a maximum LVR of 80% in the wake of the GFC, ANZ has spend a lot of time analysing credit performance and it now believes it can better identify high LVR loans which will perform well.

Probably the most important issue is a customer's earning capacity and potential and the stability of their income history, she says.

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