Westpac boss flags mortgage stress risk as profits fall to $5.3b

Westpac chief executive Peter King says sharply higher interest rates and rising energy and food costs will force some customers to seek help with their mortgages.

As the lender delivered a 1 per cent fall in full-year cash profits, to $5.3 billion, King said the bank had not yet seen increases in customer hardship in its loan portfolio, and consumer spending remained healthy across the economy.

However, he stressed that higher rates would inevitably have an impact, as the Reserve Bank tries to rein in inflation by tightening policy, and banks pass through a series of rate rises to mortgage customers.

“We recognise that with borrowing costs, with energy costs, with food costs all going up, that some people will need time, and there might be some write-offs,” King said on Monday

Westpac chief executive Peter King on Monday.Credit: Oscar Colman

The bank’s share price slumped 3.9 per cent to $23.19 as investors focused on Westpac’s weaker-than-expected margins for the year to September. The stock has still risen more than 7 per cent in the last month amid a wider rally in bank shares.

King said the economy remained “very strong”, as Westpac reported a drop in the proportion of stressed loans, from 1.1 per cent to 1.07 per cent of its portfolio. Yet, he added that with interest rates rising briskly, the buffers used by banks to assess how prospective customers would cope with higher rates could be “used up.”

King also backed the government’s move to consider some sort of policy intervention to deal with surging energy costs, which are hitting lower-income households especially hard.

“I think it’s right they’ve put the issue on the table, and I think it’s right that they’re working through in a structured way what to do about it.”

While investors continue to debate how rising interest rates will affect banks’ loan books, Westpac’s chief financial officer Michael Rowland told investors that tight credit standards and historically high house prices were providing a buffer for Westpac.

Principal at fund manager Alphinity, Andrew Martin, said that with unemployment at historically low levels and many customers ahead on their repayments, the banks were trying to tell investors that things were highly unlikely to get better from here. However, that did not mean they were facing a major problem with borrowers stress.

“It feels like if you’re ever going to go into a downturn, now’s not a bad time to do it, but even then, things have to deteriorate because they are just so good,” Martin said.

Another key point of interest for investors is Westpac’s net interest margin (NIM) - which compares funding costs with what the bank charges for loans. Westpac’s NIM expanded by 5 basis points in the half, compared with a 10 basis point expansion from rival ANZ Bank at its recent results.

Macquarie analyst Victor German said he thought the main reason for the share price slump was the fact its net interest margin had increased less sharply than rivals ANZ and Bank of Queensland.

“I think the market was expecting stronger margin exit rates which would more than offset higher expense growth, and to the extent this dynamics is not as significant as initially expected, there is some disappointment,” German said.

Westpac also revealed it was changing a previous commitment to get its cost base to $8 billion by 2024, because of higher-than-expected inflation. It is now targeting a cost base of $8.6 billion, though some analysts questioned if that would be a challenge for the bank.

Westpac’s profits for the year were weighed down by previously announced charges, and the bank declared a fully franked final dividend of 64¢ a share, to be paid on December 20. Westpac’s annual report also showed King’s total remuneration rose from $3.4 million to $3.9 million in 2022.

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