BNZ again shuns advisers and the numbers show it

BNZ shows in its slides that advisers accounted for only 41.1% of new lending in the six months ended September, down from 42% in the six months ended March and down from 47.6% in the six months ended September 2024.

Advisers still accounted for 39.3% of BNZ’s mortgage book at Sept 30, up from 38% a year earlier.

BNZ didn’t deal with advisers at all between 2003 and May 2015 but then resumed because it had been losing market share of the NZ mortgage market.

Last month, Kiwibank chief financial officer Paul Chambers said mortgage advisers were approaching about 65% of mortgage origination in NZ. BNZ had nearly 16.9% of the market at June 30, based on the Reserve Bank’s bank financial strength dashboard.

BNZ’s disclosure statement showed it lent a net $1.8 billion in new mortgages in the six months ended Sept 30 and $3.84 billion in the year ended Sept 30, taking its mortgage book to $63.95 billion.

The percentage of the portfolio paying interest only rose slightly to 18.6% from 18.4% a year earlier while loans with payments more than 90 days past due rose marginally to 0.21% of the portfolio from 0.2%.

Impaired loans were unchanged at 0.12% of the portfolio.

BNZ’s net profit for the year ended Sept 30 fell 0.5% to $1.5 billion and that was despite charges against profit for bad debts dropping to $27 million from $146 million the previous year.

However, net gains on financial instruments fell to $109 million from $273 million.

Net interest income was up 5.8% to $3.08 billion with net interest income rising six basis points to 2.43% while operating expenses fell 0.9% to 1.38 billion.

BNZ chief executive Dan Huggins said in a statement that the results reflect the slower-than-expected recovery in the NZ economy, noting the bank’s revenue fell 3.7%, even though home lending was up 6.4% and business lending was up 2.2%.

“BNZ has supported more than 11,500 customers into home ownership, with first-home buyers accounting for 33% of all new home loans as they took advantage of relatively flat house prices and lower mortgage rates,” Huggins said.

Since September 2024, BNZ’s advertised one-year fixed mortgage rates have dropped from 6.45% to 4.49%, saving a household with a $500,000 mortgage $376 a fortnight or nearly $10,000 a year, he said.

Nearly 50% of BNZ’s home loan customers are now on interest rates of 5% or less and more than half its customers are more than two years ahead on repayments.