BNZ says brokers generated $900m growth

It has reported profit of $416 million in the six months to the end of March, $35m down on the same time last year. Cash earnings were up 9%.

Lending increased $5.1 billion.

Healy said the broker market was key to the bankm achieving home loan growth. There had been $900m growth in brokered home loans over the year, he said.

“We have a strong portfolio of six broker partners, who in turn have more than 800 advisers. We’ve made improvements to our processes and we are realising the productivity benefits of this.”

He said the borrowing climate was changing.

“Housing affordability continues to be an issue, though most recently we have seen the impact of the loan-to-value restrictions in the housing market and prices, particularly in Auckland, have seemed to plateau.

"We anticipate there will be increased pressure on lending margins in the coming months which will influence interest rates. Essentially, while funding costs have fallen they haven’t fallen by as much as our lending rates, which means our margins have reduced.  Today there are more people looking to borrow, so banks are paying more to win customers deposits so this will lead to higher lending costs being passed through to borrowers.”

Net interest income increased by $25m in the half, driven by growth in lending and deposit volumes.

Net interest margin decreased by 12 basis points to 2.15%.  That was driven by higher funding costs and lower earnings on capital, offset by improved lending margins in housing and business lending.