Kiwibank CEO Sam Knowles said he expected Kiwibank's lending growth rate would slow from the fast pace seen in the second half of calendar 2008 because the bigger Australian banks were likely to reenter the market soon to compete harder once they had sorted their overseas funding.

"We do expect it to slow because the other banks will come back into the market," Knowles told interest.co.nz late on Thursday, citing recent moves by ASB with its Job Creation Fund business loans at 5% and BNZ's 4.99% mortgage rate for 6 months.

Knowles said Kiwibank was seeing less churn in its mortgage book as homeowners elected to stay in their current homes rather than try to trade up in the subdued housing market.

He said that Kiwibank and its parent NZ Post were looking at options for an internal restructuring of NZ Post's balance sheet to provide extra capital. Kiwibank's tier one capital ratio has dropped from 8.3% to 7.3% in the last year.

* This article was first published on Friday in our daily subscription newsletter for the banking and finance industries. The email costs NZ$365 per annum and carries exclusive news and analysis for New Zealand banking and finance industry executives, regulators and investors. Sign up for a free trial here.