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Suncorp Bank’s home, agribusiness and small business lending volumes have remained steady, despite ‘subdued’ economic conditions and lower system growth levels, according to its Australian Prudential Standard 330 asset, credit quality and capital update requirements.
The non-major lender says it continues to manage credit quality within stated risk tolerances by targeting low-risk lending, with new lending focused primarily on owner occupiers seeking to borrow less than $500,000.
Suncorp Bank CEO, David Foster, says lending growth continued due to strong branch distribution in growth regions complemented by customer acquisition through improved servicing of brokers.
“Home lending continues to benefit from investments in channel and geographic expansion to deliver broad-based growth across major national markets. We continue to grow and strengthen our business by meeting the needs of our customers with a simple and attractive product suite as they look for alternatives to the major banks,” says Foster.
He adds that impairment losses of $18million for the quarter were within the bank’s medium-term expectations.
“The overall reduction in gross impaired assets of 7.7% to $467 million reflects the planned run-off of the Non-core portfolio. Past due loans remain low. The residual balance of the Non-core portfolio reduced by $340 million over the September quarter to $395 million, in line with expectations.”
Suncorp Group has also provided an update on the bush fires that have impacted communities in New South Wales over the past two weeks. The group has received about 400 claims estimated to cost between $60 million and $70 million.
Suncorp Group CEO, Patrick Snowball, says assessors had been deployed to affected regions.
“With the fires now contained, we can begin the task of helping customers re-build their homes and communities following these devastating bushfires.”
