(Reuters) -Australia’s Westpac on Monday an increase in net profit for the first quarter as deposits and loan volumes grew and said that a widely anticipated interest rate would help households and companies that are placed with the costs of the living. .
The No. 2 Mortgage Pedigator from Australia booked a non -gewuditated net profit of a $ 1.7 billion ($ 1.08 billion) for the three months ending on December 31, compared to a $ 1.5 billion posted a year earlier.
However, based on the average quarterly performance of the bank in the second half of 2024, the profit had fallen by 9%, which is a reflection of trends in hedge accounting.
Westpac said that domestic home loans grew by 2% during the period and that business loans grew by 3%.
The ratio between the repayments of loans more than 90 days late to the total loans from the bank was 1.03%at the end of December, with 9 basic points from the end of September.
“Costs of living and high interest rates remain challenging for some customers, while many companies are confronted with cost pressure and a lower demand,” said Chief Executive Anthony Miller.
“Encouraging the inflation is relaxed and we could see that the reserve Bank of Australia has already lowered the cash rate tomorrow. This should support households and, over time, business activity,” he added.
The most important net interest margin of the bank – the difference between interest earned by loans and paid for deposits – decreased 2 basic points from the second half of last year to 1.81%.
“The modest deterioration reflects the cautious management in the context of continuous mortgage competition and further deposits mix shift to lower spreading pairs and term deposits,” Westpac said in a statement.
Westpac said that his common stock Neer 1 ratio, an indicator for reserve, money, was 11.9% at the end of the quarter compared to 12.3% at the end of the same period last year.
($ 1 = 1,5748 Australian dollars)
(Report by Himanshi Akhand and Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaals
