ANZ To Pay Interim Dividend; Takes Addl. A$500 Mln Charge

(RTTNews) - Australia And New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.(ANZ.AX, ANZBY.PK, ANZ) said that its board proposed an interim dividend of 0.25 Australian cents per share, following the deferral of a decision on the interim dividend in April 2020.

ANZ announced a statutory profit for the third quarter to 30 June 2020 of A$1.327 billion with a cash profit from continuing operations of A$1.498 billion.

The bank said that it took a total provision charge of another A$500 million for the third-quarter of 2020, this followed a A$1.674 billion charge taken in the first half of 2020. This new charge included an individually assessed provision charge of A$264 million and a collective provision charge of A$236 million to strengthen its credit reserves, particularly for deferral packages for small business customers.

In Australia, ANZ has about 84,000 deferrals in place for home loan accounts at 31 July 2020 valued at A$31 billion, representing 9% of Australian home loan accounts. ANZ has deferred 22,000 business loans at 31 July 2020 valued at A$9.5 billion, representing 14% of commercial lending exposures.

In New Zealand, ANZ provided support to 39,000 customers which included deferrals on 24,000 home loans valued at NZ$6 billion, representing 6% of New Zealand's Home Loan portfolio. ANZ also granted 2,700 temporary overdraft facilities to businesses needing more working capital.