A former mutual society has said that growth in its mortgage books over the past year has been negated by poor performance from its life insurance business.
AMP Bank’s mortgage book has increased 3.2% over the last quarter to $13.7 billion as strong take-up of its mortgage products continued, its quarterly financial report shows.
The deposit book was $9.1 billion, up 4% on the fourth quarter of 2013.
AMP Wealth Management net cashflows for the quarter were $363 million, up 72% from $211 million in the first quarter of 2013. Total assets under management were $101.1 billion, up from $100.5 billion at the end of the last quarter, reflecting relatively benign investment markets, the bank said.
CEO Craig Mellor told shareholders at its annual general meeting yesterday the year had been successful but challenging.
Last year was AMP’s best year for net cashflows since the GFC, with $2.2 billion in its wealth management business and record results from the bank, he said.
“Those trends have continued into the first quarter of this year, with growth in both our wealth management net cashflows and our mortgage book.”
However, this was offset by higher than expected claims and policy lapses in its life insurance business, Mellor said. The company will be addressing issues with this side of the business in the coming year, he said.
Shareholders voted at the AGM to re-elect the five current AMP directors. Simon McKeon is taking over from Peter Mason as chairman.
McKeon told shareholders he was humbled after being asked “out of the blue” last year to take the AMP helm.
“The reason I said yes, and the reason I was humbled to be asked is that this is a very, very special organisation.
It has a long and proud history – at 165 years old, it is one of the oldest Australian-owned companies in the country. It is iconic,” he said.
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