by Susan Edmunds
The local unit of the Australian-owned bank reported a 25% fall in first-quarter profit but its home loans book lifted to $47.6 billion in December 2012 from $46.12 billion three months earlier.
Net interest income fell 2.5 percent to $651 million, and other operating revenue more than halved to $93 million.
Kerri Thompson, ANZ’s managing director of retail said its new customers were a mix of people who had moved from other banks and borrowers taking out new loans to purchase property. “It’s more skewed to buyers than it was last year.”
She said most were fixing their loans for one or two years.
Banks have been slashing their advertised rates over recent weeks but Thompson said it was wrong to describe their actions as a mortgage war. “It’s a competitive environment.”
ANZ is launching a series of first-home buyer seminars to educate people about the property market. Thompson said they would cover off topics such as when a lawyer was needed, what changes in the local and global the economy might do to house prices, and explain the process in terms that were easy to understand.
Seminars formally start in Auckland at the end of the month.
In a media relations fumble last week, the bank sent out a release that had been intended for distribution on March 19, claiming that hundreds of people had attended the Auckland seminars.
From there, the bank said, it was rolling out more around the country. The release it had intended to send was one announcing the start of the Auckland series.
But Thompson said seminars had already started in an informal way and there had been a strong level of interest, including for one seminar conducted in Mandarin.
ANZ is also giving away a $10,000 prize to a customer who registers with the bank’s new ANZ’s First Home website.
It is designed to help customers track their savings and stay focused as they accumulate a deposit.
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