(Reuters) -Australia and New Zealand Banking Group’s annual profit jumped 65% to top market expectations on Thursday and the lender doubled its dividend as a milder impact from pandemic allowed it to release funds kept aside to cover potential bad loans.
Easy money and an unprecedented amount of fiscal spending has helped support the Australian economy, protecting jobs and lifting house prices, even as Sydney and Melbourne faced long lockdowns.
Cash profit from continuing operations came in at A$6.20 billion ($4.66 billion) for the year ended Sept. 30, beating the average estimate of A$5.96 billion in a Reuters poll of seven analysts. It was higher than the A$3.76 billion reported a year earlier.
However, the bank said home loan volumes were hit in the second half by a more competitive refinancing market, customers paying loans back faster and processing issues.
The country’s fourth-largest lender will pay a final dividend of 72 Australian cents per share, up from 35 cents, having already begun a A$1.5 billion share buyback in August.
It released a further A$567 million it set aside last year for the worst of the COVID-19 crisis.
($1 = 1.3303 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Riya Sharma and Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
