19 Aug 2013

ANZ mortgage lending hits almost $5 billion in 20 months

7:31 am on 19 August 2013

ANZ Bank has lent $4.7 billion in mortgages since the end of 2011.

In the quarter before that, its mortgage book actually shrank and it had been losing market share almost continuously since 2003 when it acquired National Bank.

The country's largest bank now accounts for nearly 31% of all mortgage lending by registered banks, based on Reserve Bank figures.

However, ANZ is clearly heeding the central bank's concerns about the riskiest type of mortgage lending.

The figures in its latest quarterly disclosure statement show ANZ lent a net $903 million in new mortgages in the three months to June.

But just about all that new lending, some $874 million, was to people with more than a 20% deposit.

Only $29 million, or 3.2% of the new lending, went to people with deposits of less than 20%.

Lending to those unable to muster a deposit of 10% shrank further, down by $247 million in the latest three months after shrinking by $114 million in the previous March quarter.