Australia's ANZ posts lower annual profit on one-off charge, margin pressure

(Reuters) -Australian lender ANZ Group reported a 14% drop in its full-year cash earnings on Monday, hurt by a significant one-time charge related to job cuts and a regulatory settlement, while competition and rate cuts squeezed margins. ANZ has faced a turbulent year, absorbing a record regulatory penalty, thousands of job cuts and mounting integration costs from its Suncorp Bank acquisition, as new CEO Nuno Matos pushes to streamline its core business units and repair its risk culture. The lender took an A$1.11 billion ($721.28 million) post-tax profit hit, including A$414 million from 3,500 staff redundancies, and A$264 million in penalties to settle its lawsuit with the securities regulator. ANZ, the country's fourth-largest lender by market value, posted cash profit of A$5.79 billion for the year ended September 30, missing a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$6.17 billion and below last year's A$6.73 billion. Excluding the one-off charge, cash profit came in at A$6.90 billion. Cash profit at the bank's Australian retail and institutional lending divisions fell 35% and 9%, respectively, as margins contracted despite growth in lending and deposit volumes. The Reserve Bank of Australia's three interest rate cuts this year have helped the housing market. However, competition to sell cheaper home loans has impacted banks' margins. ANZ said its net interest margin declined by 2 basis points from a year earlier to 1.55%. Results from rival lenders Westpac and National Australia Bank have already underscored the pricing and competition headwinds facing the country's big banks. Australian banks have retreated from non-core businesses in recent years to double down on their home-market strengths, slimming portfolios and betting harder on mortgages to fuel earnings. The lender's operating costs also rose 20% to A$2.14 billion, further hurting its bottom line. ANZ declared a final dividend of 83 Australian cents per share, the same as last year. ($1 = 1.5389 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee and Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Chris Reese)

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