ANZ NZ interim profit climbs 11% to NZ$964 mln as net interest margin rises. Loan impairments rise, revenue growth narrowly ahead of increase in expenses

Yes, please no more bleeding hearts saying the banks cannot lower rates as they are struggling with overseas funding costs and face extreme exchange risks. They are clearly price gouging the borrowers which is their prerogative; but it is also ours to call them greedy bastards.

In the case of the big 4 banks in NZ, the title should be " the Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Manage One"

Take out highly leveraged home loans based on fraudulent income statements to borrow much more than the locals ever could. Rent each bedroom to a dumb kiwi and pay most of the interest. If the housing market booms keep doing the same. If you ever find your equity ever sinks underwater you just flee back to Mainland China.

That and a lower % of mortgages and commercial business. Even the NZ government & councils don't use Kiwibank yet.

Almost $500 per year for every person in the country.

Murray - simple answer is, we're world class personal borrowers at 168% debt to income...world class. They need twice as many Yanks o get the same amount out.

Bail outs aren't the only way banks are handled. They might have their loan book bundled up and sold to another bank for a nominal $10 pricetag (for Contract Act reasons). In that case shareholders lose everything, potentially depositors too.

A depositor bail in only happens after shareholder assets have been consumed. So there might not be much asset value and reduced future earnings which would leave you will a big fall in share price.

Or the bank could be a semi-zombie bank like Deutsche Bank where the assets are in the 0.1% of the loan book. They also have a much lower share price.

Depending on the scenario the outcome for banks doesn't always have an upside.

Davo36,

Here are some examples of banks being bailed out 1) BNZ in early 1990's, 2) Citigroup in 2008/2009, 3) Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 2008/2009.

In all these cases, the bail out ultimately resulted in a large number of new shares being issued for the funds received. This resulted in significant dilution of ownership in the recapitalised financial institution to the shareholders who owned the shares before the recapitalisation.

I had friends who worked at Citigroup since the late 1990's and received shares annually as part of their compensation. After the 2008/2009 recapitalisation, these shares were worth a small fraction of their original amount.

I suggest you look into the cases mentioned above to teach yourself about what can happen to equity investors in a bank bailout.

Nah. Buy bank shares during the crisis, before the bail out is confirmed. You'll get rock bottom prices