According to media accounts of Westpac's annual meeting in Sydney yesterday the bank's managing director, David Morgan, had a little more to say to reporters afterwards than in prepared remarks for the meeting that largely ignored the escalating cost of funds that are making life awkward for all banks at present.
Abstracting from the
Sydney Morning Herald, Morgan told reporters markets remained "very volatile"; and suggested the impact on margins in Westpac's home loan book (where the bank, like its peers, won't lift rates) was being offset by higher levels of business from corporate and institutional customers.
The SMH reported that Morgan hinted Westpac might use the Rams brand to offer cheaper mortgages.
"Overall, so far this financial year, we are broadly travelling to plan, if anything slightly ahead of that, and continue to see good growth across all of our business," Morgan said.