First-half net profit at ANZ New Zealand rose slightly as it gained market share in the mortgage market while cutting costs and as charges against profit for bad debts more than halved.
The Australian-owned bank, which is New Zealand's largest, lifted net profit by 1% to $655 million in the six months ended March.
Chief executive David Hisco said lending volumes rose in a low credit growth environment, driven primarily by above-market growth in mortgages, although profit margins fell from their 2012 peak.
With demand growing in the New Zealand housing market, Mr Hisco said ANZ continued to focus on being the nation's number one home loan provider by launching a number of initiatives aimed at making the process of taking out a mortgage easier for customers.
Mr Hisco said he likes to think ANZ's current growth in mortgages is sustainable.
"We are the largest home loan provider in New Zealand, we write more mortgages than any other bank and that's really the way we want to stay, so we'll be fully focussed on making sure that we are the largest and best home loan provider in New Zealand."
The bank's simplification programme is winding down after delivering increased productivity and lower costs which will help ANZ better leverage its scale to support future earnings growth, Mr Hisco said.
Charges against profit for bad debts fell to $43 million from $96 million in the same six months a year earlier.
Customer deposits rose 5% in the latest six months.
ANZ's parent bank lifted its first-half net profit by 7% to $A2.9 billion, reflecting growth in both its Australian and international divisions.
Radio New Zealand's business editor said the parent bank has been working on diversifying earnings and 20% of its revenue now comes from outside Australia and New Zealand.
