BNZ pays record dividend to NAB

Bank of New Zealand paid a record dividend to its Australian parent with the dividend so far in the 2010 financial year more than doubling the amount paid last year.

BNZ paid NZ$605 million, comprising NZ$563 million of ordinary dividend and NZ$42 million of perpetual preference dividend. This compared with NZ$252 million total dividend paid during the full 2009 financial year.

The NZ$563 million of ordinary dividend is a record amount, and the only occasion in the past when the total dividend exceeded NZ$605 million was in 2008, when a special dividend of NZ$300 million was paid in addition to an ordinary dividend of NZ$388 million.

Such huge dividend payouts have been a point of contention in the past, with bank workers' union Finsec calling on the government to toughen its oversight of the Australian-owned banks when records showed banks paid dividends in 2009 that were more than double what they earned.

In BNZ's case, the total dividend paid compares with net profit and other income attributed to equity holders of NZ$616 million in the nine months to June 2010.  NAB invested NZ$200 million via perpetual preference capital during this period, thus resulting in total equity increasing to NZ$3.96 billion from NZ$3.75 billion at the start of the year.

Separately, BNZ expanded its balance sheet in the latest quarter mainly due to an increase in commercial paper issuance, while deposits from customers rose marginally. Commercial paper issues rose to NZ$8.0 billion from NZ$5.6 billion in March.

However, a large portion of such inflows was invested in term balances with financial institutions, which doubled to NZ$1.48 billion from NZ$721 million in March. Loans to customers rose slightly to NZ$54.76 billion, up NZ$114 million.