World News – AU – ANZ cuts dividend, as profits fall 40% to $ 3 6b

However, its preferred measure of cash profit, from continuing operations, fell 42% to $ 3.76 billion

Despite declining profitability, ANZ plans to pay shareholders a final dividend of 35 cents per share on December 16, fully paid

The bank said its results were reduced by $ 2.7 billion in « credit impairment charges » due to the impact of COVID-19 in fiscal year 2019-20

ANZ said that figure also included first-half write-downs of its Asian associates, including AmBank of Malaysia and PT Panin of Indonesia, in which it has a major stake.

While we often look at housing markets in cities and even across the country as a whole, there are all kinds of local and house-specific factors that drive prices – often quite heavily. >

Earlier this week, ANZ reported that its profit would be affected by a sharp increase in « customer remediation » costs

Australian banks have been forced to compensate customers who have received bad financial advice or been charged a « fee for no service » – for which they came under heavy criticism during the Royal Commission of 2018 banking survey

Over the past week, NAB and Westpac also reported that their second-half profits would be affected by « significant items » – worth $ 450 million and $ 12 billion respectively – due to compensation and other expenses

Westpac’s profits have been particularly large, as it has to pay a record $ 1.3 billion for violating Australia’s anti-money laundering laws

« We could never have predicted 2020, a year that began with devastating bushfires in Australia and unfolded with the waves of a pandemic that continues today, » said Shayne Elliott , CEO of ANZ

« Although we still cannot predict its evolution, we remain convinced that we can manage its impacts »

In a statement, the bank said it deferred repayments of around 95,000 out of more than one million mortgages during the pandemic

As job losses continue to rise due to closures, the number of Australians struggling to pay off their mortgages is expected to rise to higher levels than during the global financial crisis

More than half of those home borrowers – 55,000 – either ended their deferral agreements or told ANZ what they intended to do when the repayment vacation ended

He indicated that 79% of them would return to full repayment, 20% requested another extension and 1% of them restructured their loan or requested additional support

ANZ also looked at transactions in its customers’ accounts and said 80% of them had « stable or improved income »

M Elliott said his bank’s mortgage business has performed well, with « above the system growth » in the homeowner market

« We have also seen an accelerated move away from the use of cash and introduced new processes to help many customers switch to online banking »

This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and BBC World Service which is copyrighted and may not be reproduced

AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time, which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)

Australian and New Zealand Banking Group, Finance, Shayne Elliott