ANZ profit up 53 per cent

Just a day after National Australia Bank (NAB) reported a 62 per cent surge in profit, the ANZ has reported a 53 per cent increase in net statutory profit to $4.5 billion.

The result, announced to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) this morning, prompted ANZ chief executive Mike Smith to say the banking group “now has momentum in every area of our business”.

Looking specifically at the Australian business, Smith said that profit growth across the business had contributed to a 42 per cent increase in region profit — albeit both income and expenses had been impacted by acquisitions, particularly the remaining 51 per cent of the ING wealth management joint venture.

Smith said that profit from the ANZ’s funds management and insurance business had doubled to $314 million, with the wealth management income up 11 per cent.

Funds under management had risen by 2 per cent.

Despite this positive data, Smith made no mention of any further growth ambitions on the part of the banking group in the broader wealth management sector.

While forecasting that the banking group would finish 2010 in good shape, Smith warned of continuing uncertainty in the global environment, particularly in the US and European economies which he said were struggling to achieve “escape velocity”.

At the same time he said that higher funding costs were “here to stay” along with regulatory uncertainties associated with new capital and liquidity requirements.

“With global economic growth likely to continue to be soft over the medium term, in all, this remains a challenging environment to navigate,” Smith said.