HSBC's mortgage book continued to shrink, although, unlike the other home-lending banks it doesn't include loss attributing qualifying companies (LAQCs) in its residential lending figures, and its net profit fell.
ASB Bank's net profit rose 8.2% to $105 million in the quarter, bringing its profit for the nine months ended March to $322 million, up 15.4% on the same nine months a year earlier.
The bank's mortgage book grew by $1.01 billion to $28.29 billion in the quarter, lifting its share of bank lending on housing to 23.9% compared with 23.7% at the end of December, using Reserve Bank figures as a proxy for the market. In March last year, ASB's share of the mortgage market was 23.2%.
Kiwibank's net profit jumped 120.6% to $5.4 million in the March quarter, bringing its profit for the nine months ended March to $10.8 million, up from $4.9 million in the same nine months a year earlier.
Kiwibank spokesman Bruce Thompson says this is in line with the bank's expectation that its full-year result will be about double that of last year's.
There was no one reason for the bank's increasing profitability other than the customers it signed up in its early start-up phase are now starting to pay off, Thompson says.
HSBC's net profit fell 6.7% to $7.7 million in the March quarter while its mortgage book shrank to $2.11 million from $2.12 million at the end of December and from $2.16 million in March last year.
The last time HSBC revealed the amount it had lent to LAQCs was in the December 2004 quarter when that part of its book stood at $587 million.
