By Gareth Vaughan
HSBC New Zealand delivered a 16% rise in March quarter profit as expenses fell and loan impairments moved from the red into the black.
The bank's General Disclosure Statement for the three months to March 31 shows unaudited profit after tax rose $2 million to $14.6 million from $12.6 million in the same period of last year. Profit was boosted by a $1.2 million, or 8%, drop in operating expenses to $13.5 million. And compared with provisions for loan impairments of $318,000 in the March quarter last year, this time around HSBC recorded a recovery of $793,000.
Net interest income fell $1.4 million, or 6%, to $20.2 million, and total operating income - including fee and commission income - rose $448,000, or 1%, to $33 million.
HSBC's residential mortgage book shrank by $1.9 million to $893.2 million. Total lending rose $100 million, or 3%, to $3.4 billion.
Technically the New Zealand operations of the Hong Kong-based Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, HSBC NZ grew total assets by about $232 million, or 4% to $5.278 billion with the biggest increase coming in "cash and demand balances with central banks" - up $127.1 million to $426.4 million.
It grew total liabilities by $231 million, or 5%, to $5.261 billion with " amounts due to related parties" up $216 million to $1 billion. These transactions include activities such as funding, accepting deposits, derivative transactions, plus management and technical fees, HSBC says.
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