Bank of New Zealand reported a rise of 43 per cent in pre-tax profit to NZ$369 million for the December 2008 quarter over the same quarter a year ago, largely due to a tripling of profit from its BNZ Capital institutional and trading division to NZ$215 million.The general disclosure statement for the quarter also shows that the mix of the BNZ portfolio is changing.Housing loans fell, just, to NZ$24.1 billion in the quarter from NZ$24.2 billion at the end of the September quarter, while other term lending to farmers and businesses rose to NZ$24.9 billion from NZ$23.9 billion. BNZ's allowance for impairment losses rose to NZ$222 million in the most recent quarter from NZ$215 million in the September 2008 quarter. Corporate loans that were past due by 90 days or more doubled to NZ$87 million in the quarter, while overdue housing loans rose only slightly to NZ$36 million from NZ$31 million.BNZ grew its customer deposits to NZ$26.5 billion by the end of December from NZ$25.9 billion at the end of September, although most of this was in the more expensive interest-bearing demand deposit and term deposit areas.BNZ paid a dividend to its parent NAB of NZ$217 million for the quarter, which was down from NZ$388 million in the previous quarter.BNZ's tier one capital ratio as a percentage of total risk-weighted assets fell to 7.94 per cent by the end of December from 8.05 per cent at the end of September.Interest.co.nz