Westpac's strategy of standing aside from the price war in the New Zealand mortgage market doesn't seem to have hurt it much.
Thursday, May 19th 2005, 6:45AM
by The Landlord
The bank's mortgage book grew by about $600 million to $20.1 billion over the March quarter.
Using Reserve Bank of New Zealand figures as a proxy for the market, that puts Westpac's share at 19.4% compared with 19.6% at the end of December and with 19.5% at the end of March last year.
Westpac New Zealand chief executive Ann Sherry puts the bank's market share of overall lending at 17.2% in March at the bank's share of the market at 19.25% at the end of March but didn't explain how she arrived at that figure.
According to the central bank, total mortgage lending by registered banks at March 31 was $103.36 billion. (The Reserve Bank figures for March weren't available when ANZ/National Bank reported its results and the figures show its market share has almost stabilised, slipping from 35.1% at the end of December to 35% at the end of March).
In the year ended March, the bank's mortgage book grew 15% from $17.4 billion.
The bank's overall net profit rose 4% to $323 million during the six months.
