Kiwibank reported a dismal December 2010 quarter, with profit dropping to NZ$5.3 million, compared with NZ$8.7 million in the quarter to September 2010. For the six months to December, profit fell to NZ$13.9 million, down around 41 per cent from the same period in 2009.The poor performance was entirely  due to a sharp rise in impairments in the recent quarter, with provisions jumping nearly four-fold, to NZ$36 million, from just NZ$9.5 million in the September quarter. The rise in provision mainly relates to corporate loans. Very little relates to domestic home owners, Kiwibank said. Kiwibank had a strong quarter for retail deposits, which had jumped 8.5 per cent, to NZ$7.6 billion, by the end of the December quarter, from NZ$7.0 billion in September. Total lending saw a small increase, to NZ$10.9 billion, up 1.9 per cent from September.