Rerisking ANZ
There's plenty of evidence of the repositioning of ANZ in the bank's March 2008 half year profit.Maybe more than some expected to find.Take loan growth in overseas markets. This segment accounted for $9.7 billion of $49 billion in aggregate growth for the bank. Asia explains $2.7 billion of that growth, leaving $7.0 billion of growth down to lending into markets such as Europe and America.What industries and market segments ANZ regards as opportune in these markets, isn't all that clear. Suffice to say that a lot of lending growth in this segment may prove to be of the kind - to borrow a Mike Smith phrase about Opes Prime - that's "under the radar".Risk criteria have shifted at ANZ in order to fuel growth in offshore markets and institutional, and not in a conservative direction.Some growth from these segments is low margin. Crappy margins in institutional are pulling down the group margin, and more than countering the fatter margins reported on Asian lending.Asia, though, is producing more growth in markets (60 per cent of assets) than lending (40 per cent).So "markets" is one growth division for ANZ. It's just at present not a profitable one.The "markets" business of ANZ bore the brunt of the credit losses disclosed by the bank six weeks ago. This part of the business reported a loss of $6 million for the March half, after earnings profit of around $150 million in each of the two prior halves.The monoline-related losses on credit derivatives and the mining company loss that were the cause of large provisions were in markets.Working Capital - which includes securities lending - reported a 22 per cent decline in profit to $131 million.