Strong mortgage growth has helped Australia’s fifth largest retail bank, ING DIRECT, post a 45 per cent increase in net profit after tax.
The second tier lender recorded a net profit of $263.7 million, and while major banks wrote almost 90 per cent of all new mortgages it recorded $1.3 billion growth in home loans on its $36 billion portfolio.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Moreover, the bank’s regulatory capital ratio increased from 12.8 per cent at the end of 2008 to 13.1 per cent in 2009 and its tier 1 ratio increased to 8.7 per cent.
ING DIRECT’s chief executive officer Don Koch said the bank had retained profits of $1 billion.
“We have the financial firepower to easily fund our growth plans in the medium term,” Mr Koch said.
“Moreover, we can now deliver the full range of our customers’ primary banking needs with simple, transparent and cost effective products.”