State-owned Kiwibank has announced a half-year audited profit of $22.7 million after tax, compared with $17.2m for the corresponding period last year.
Total lending, including home loans, business banking and credit cards, for the six months to the end of December increased 34% to $4.8 billion. That included $600m of loans acquired from HSBC, the bank said.
Retail deposits increased 20% to $4b, and Kiwibank has nearly 600,000 customers.
Chief executive Sam Knowles said the bank was building on early work in developing a strong customer base and competing aggressively in the loan and deposit markets. The growth of business banking services had been pleasing, with business banking total lending exceeding the $1b mark during December.
Uncertainty in the financial sector had continued to drive strong retail deposits for Kiwibank, attracting $392m of term deposits for the period and increasing the online call account by $189m.
The growth in the home loan book was affected by the slowing housing market, although Kiwibank had been able to maintain competitive interest rates compared with the Astralian-owned banks, Mr Knowles said.
Kiwibank incurred $10.3m in tax for the six-month period.
