First-home buyer focus pays off: Kiwibank

The bank revealed a $100 million after-tax profit in the year to June 30.

Kiwibank Chief Executive Paul Brock said the underlying performance was very encouraging and emphasised the increasing contribution of the financial services group to the overall performance of the New Zealand Post Group.

Brock said loans and deposits showed healthy growth with the bank increasing market share in its key markets.

In the last year, Kiwibank:
• Increased loans and advances by 10.6% from $13.2 billion to $14.6 billion
• Increased customer deposits by 5.8% from $12.1 billion to $12.8 billion

Since October, banks have had to lend no more than 10% of their new loans to borrowers with a deposit of less than 20%.

Kiwibank had made it clear it would give priority to first-home buyers over investors.

Spokesman Bruce Thompson said that had an impact. “We have not had to cut back on our lending to first-home buyers so it has stayed steady, we are doing less investment loans in the high LVR space. We are determined to continue making first-home buyers our priority, Welcome Home lending is big for us and is outside the LVR restrictions.”