MELBOURNE (CU)_During the year ended 30 September, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group profits jumped by 65 per cent, following a release of funds which were set aside to cover potential bad loans amid the pandemic. However, multinational banking and financial service provider acknowledged that unlike its fellow competitors, it had failed to capitalise on Australia’s home lending, which has experienced a pandemic-induced boom over the recent past.
During the second half of this year, the volume of ANZ’s home loans declined by 1 per cent to A$278 billion. This was despite a 20 per cent surge in house prices across the country triggered by an unprecedented amount of fiscal spending amid the global health crisis.
“We started the year really well in home loans and then, of course, we saw just unbelievable levels of volume across the economy in terms of turnover, people buying and selling houses. Now we didn’t prepare well and that’s on me,” Chief Executive Shayne Elliott said in a published internal interview.
Since 2019, the firm’s Australian home loan market share has fallen by 70 basis points in August to 13.9 per cent, while its larger rivals continue to benefit from the sector. For instance, the country’s largest lender Commonwealth Bank, has had its home lending market share grow by 25.3 per cent during the 12 months which ended on 30 June.
Accordingly, Elliott’s top priority would be to grow ANZ’s home loan book in line with its larger peers by the end of the current fiscal year. The multinational bank has already launched several efforts to meet this goal, including the appointment of hundreds of engineers to build a “cornerstone” online banking and lending service, while several other employees are committed to addressing problems associated with loan processing times.
