ANZ, BNZ deposits grow strongly in September quarter
Customer deposits at two of the largest banks grew significantly in the September quarter as investors sought the safety net and attractive rates on bank deposits ahead of the expiry of the government’s retail deposit guarantee scheme.
Thursday, October 28th 2010, 2:58PM
by Sophia Rodrigues
ANZ seemed to have been the main beneficiary, growing its deposits by a sharp $1.5 billion in the latest quarter but that rise follows a fall in deposits in the June quarter. However, despite the huge deposit growth, ANZ ended the 2010 financial year with a fall in deposits to $59.7 billion, down 0.3% compared with September 2009.
In contrast, Bank of New Zealand’s customer deposits grew significantly during the year to $28.7 billion, up 5.25% from the year before. A substantial portion of the deposit growth came in the latest quarter where the bank added $677 million of deposits, nearly 47% of the rise in full year deposits.
The two banks thus added a total $2.2 billion of deposits in the September quarter.
Investors have recently shown a strong preference for bank deposits as finance companies are no longer seen by many as a safe investment destination. This means that most of the investments that matured ahead of the expiry of the retail deposit guaranteed would have got invested in bank deposits, and not re-invested in finance companies.
In terms of interest rates, BNZ had been among the aggressive ones offering one of the best rates for five-month deposits and after recently combining two of its rate tiers, the bank is offering an attractive 5.15% for a minimum amount of $5,000.
It is also likely that the deposit growth is a result of inflows after the government on August 31 handed over to the Trustees of South Canterbury Finance an amount of around $1.6 billion to repay investors. The amount was subsequently paid to the investors earlier this month.
As an example, institutional deposits at ANZ rose $567 million in the half year period to September when the growth in total deposits at the bank was $473 million.
| « Investors warned to ignore bogus Hubbard poll | SFO adds Dominion Finance to its growing list of investigations » |
Special Offers
Commenting is closed
|
|
Printable version |
|
Email to a friend |
