The bank's mortgage book grew by $610 million to $18.717 billion in the three months, putting its market share at 16.28%, down from 16.32% at the end of September. That was also down on the 16.29% reached at December 2004, using Reserve Bank of New Zealand figures as a proxy for the market.
BNZ sparked a mortgage pricing war in late 2004 with its "unbeatable" advertising campaign and it also actively promotes the fact that it doesn't deal with mortgage brokers.
Its net profit in the three months ended December rose to $139 million compared with $117 million in the same three months of 2004. The bank has adopted the new International Financial Reporting Standards and has re-stated its December quarter 2004 result from the previously published $132 million.
The bank's operating expenses fell $28 million, or 11.6%, to $213 million compared with the year-earlier quarter while total assets grew 9.7% to $46.561 billion.
