ANZ, the country's biggest bank booked a $642.3 million profit after tax in the March quarter, according to the latest update of the Reserve Bank's Bank Financial Strength Dashboard.
That's the most the bank has made in a quarter at least since the dashboard was introduced six years ago, and is almost certainly its most profitable quarter ever.
Before tax ANZ's March quarter profit weighed in at $899.5 million, just shy of $10 million per day.
The March after tax figure compares to $491.2 million in the March 2023 quarter, $412.5 million in the December 2023 quarter, and the previous high of $620 million in the June 2022 quarter.
So why was ANZ's March 2024 quarterly profit so high? A big trading and hedging gain, and miniscule impaired asset expense certainly helped.
The bank had net interest income of $1.07 billion, versus $1.05 billion in the March 2023 quarter, with a net interest margin of 2.4% versus 2.3%.
It recorded trading and hedging gains of $127.4 million versus a loss of $0.6 million, and impaired asset expense of just $0.3 million versus $98.7 million. Fee and commission income came in at $117.4 million versus $120.1 million, and all other income was $2.6 million versus $3.6 million.
The bank's operating expenses were $21.1 million, or 5%, higher in the March 2024 quarter versus the March 2023 quarter, at $417.9 million, and it paid $257.2 million of tax, up $35.1 million year-on-year.
As of March 31, ANZ's total lending stood at $151.451 billion, according to the dashboard. That's up $665.8 million since December 31 last year, and $3.665 billion year-on-year.
The country's biggest housing lender, ANZ's home loan book was at $107.5 billion at March 31. That's up $793 million, or 0.74%, from $106.706 billion at December 31.
Meanwhile, having been overtaken by BNZ as the country's biggest business lender in 2021, ANZ is falling further behind. Dashboard figures show ANZ's business lending dropped $937 million, or 3%, in the year to March to $26.157 billion. BNZ's rose $497 million, or 2%, to $28.845 billion.
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