ANZ wants a bigger slice of the New Zealand banking market, one that's very profitable for it, ANZ Group CEO Nuno Matos says.
"As a leader in New Zealand, we will continue to behave as a leader. What I would say is we are renewing our energy and making sure that we translate that leadership into even more growth and more returns," Matos said when answering questions in an analyst briefing after the release of ANZ's annual financial results on Monday.
"New Zealand is a significant part of our group and is a very, very profitable part of our book, is extremely accretive to the group returns, extremely. So we want more of that market, we want to continue to grow in that market," Matos added.
ANZ New Zealand is the biggest bank on this side of the Tasman while its parent ranks only fourth in Australia. On Monday ANZ NZ posted a 7% drop in annual profit from last year's record high to $2.359 billion.
"What we don't do [in NZ], as we don't do in Australia, is to embark on rates or price discount expeditions, that we don't do. We don't destroy value at that level...So you should expect us to continue to grow in New Zealand both in returns and volumes, but certainly in returns. We are determined to match our ambition with our market leading position."
'Very focused on winning back' home lending market share
The country's biggest home lender, ANZ NZ had about $121 billion of housing lending as of September 30. That's 74% of its total lending, up from 73% a year earlier. However, its market share dropped 30 basis points year-on-year to 29.7%, and is down from 30.4% in September 2024.
ANZ NZ CEO Ben Kelleher, who officially took the helm from Antonia Watson on October 1, told interest.co.nz growing housing lending is a big focus.
"But it's obviously a big focus for our competitors as well. And it's been a really competitive market over the last wee while. And we've lost a bit of [market] share, but we're very focused on winning that back and making sure that we're delivering great services to our customers in that space," Kelleher said.
He said ANZ NZ is "really pleased" with the share of first home buyers it's getting.
"Our commitment share of this market [first home buyers] for the year is 33.14%, so above our [overall] market share, so that's great to see."
ANZ NZ says it grew agriculture lending 2.8% to $15.8 billion in the September year, maintaining its position as the country's biggest lender in this sector. However, in business lending ANZ NZ was overtaken by BNZ in 2021 and is NZ's second biggest business lender. But here too, ANZ NZ wants to grow, Kelleher said.
"Our focus, to be honest, is growing share across the board, really driving a strong growth agenda and ensuring that we're delivering services to customers that would make them want to choose us versus others. So in the agri space, really, really pleasing to see. We've had good lending and good deposit growth coming through, so that's fantastic. And then on the small business space, seeing really good numbers coming through and helping customers in that space when it's been a really tricky time for them. So, yeah, we've been focusing the last couple of years trying to improve our proposition to small business owners and pleased to see that that's having an impact."
The bank reported a 9.1% rise in small business lending, and a 15.4% increase in deposits from the agri sector, which was attributed to high commodity prices and Fonterra's capital return.
Speaking in the analyst briefing, ANZ Group Chief Financial Officer Farhan Faruqui said ANZ NZ "retained market leading deposit market share at approximately 30%." Faruqui also said the group's NZ unit maintained share in business and agri lending, whilst it "balanced volume and lending in a highly competitive home loan market."
Affluent customers also a target
Of NZ Matos also said ANZ was; "refreshing our propositions for priority customer segments including strengthening our wealth proposition including through partnerships with major global institutions, while working to better serve the evolving needs of affluent customers."
"In [NZ] business banking we are putting more bankers into the market supported by better data ... particularly in the segments and locations where we see opportunities to grow," Matos added.
Asked about Matos' wealth comments, Kelleher cited ANZ Investments' late 2024 addition of BlackRock to its international equities management line-up, and a partnership with BNP Paribas. These partnerships are designed to "try and make sure that we're utilising international best practices to try and drive really good returns for our customers in that space," said Kelleher.
"Obviously, that talks to customers with savings and investments. So that's targeted more at the affluent side of the coin. And then really ensuring that across the board we've got good propositions for customers whether they have different needs."
"So an affluent customer, if they're traveling overseas, how can we help them more with the credit card propositions to ensure that we've got really sharp options for them there? And a good example of that is our great Airpoints [credit] card that is well loved in the market."
Kelleher said ANZ NZ wants to ensure when people are looking around, whether they're "affluent or more mass market customers," they see "really good, compelling reasons why they'd choose us."
ANZ NZ said funds under management rose 6% over its September year to $44.2 billion.
*This article was first published in our email for paying subscribers early on Tuesday morning. See here for more details and how to subscribe.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.