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ANZ grew its Australian residential mortgage book by 10% annualised to $98bn in the December 2017 quarter, despite the clampdown on certain types of lending.
The growth was largely driven by owner-occupied loans, estimated to be 1.2 times faster than the system rate.
The bank recorded $5.7bn in switches from IO loans to principal & interest products – up from $4.4bn over a year ago – as APRA cracks down on higher risk lending, including IO loans.
Group impaired assets stood at $2.16bn, down by 9.3%.
ANZ’s mortgage book growth bucks the trend of moderating home loan business among other banks.
CBA’s home loan growth, for example, moderated to 5.2% in the 12 months to December 2017, lower than the system growth of 6.3%. The bank said it was the result of balancing regulatory requirements, returns, and risk.
However, ANZ has started tightening its assessment and approval of borrowers, a move that could slow its home lending business.
As Australian Broker reported last week, the bank is clipping the discretion of its frontline mortgage assessors and added "a higher level of approval for some discretions" used in assessing loan serviceability.
Another bank going against the trend of slowing home loan growth is Suncorp. The bank announced last week (15 February) that its total lending grew by 8.7% annualised, with improved growth across both retail and business lending.
The growth was a turnaround from the 0.34% decline recorded in its lending business for the first half of FY17.
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