Yield improving for Rural Bank

Rural Bank's earnings lifted in the September 2009 quarter, with an operating profit of $13.8 million for the year. The bank's 40 per cent shareholders, Elders Limited, indirectly reported the profit in its own financial results for the 15 months to September 2009 and published yesterday.

Elders said its share of income generated by Rural Bank was $27.7 million for the 15 month reporting period, above an earlier forecast of $26.7 million, and compared with $20.5 million in 2008.

Consistent with the reporting by Rural Bank for its own 2009 full year, Elders said there was reduced appetite for rural credit and slightly lower loans under management at September 2009 compared with June 2008.

Elders owns a 40 per cent stake in Rural Bank after selling a 10 per cent stake to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank earlier this year.

The September 2009 quarterly disclosure by Rural Bank published at its website shows a slight reduction in the level of lending over the last three months in both "other retail", as most of its farming loans are classified, and also in corporate loans.

The bank has credit risk exposures of $3.5 billion according to this method of reporting. At least in the case of Rural Bank these estimates line up with balance sheet reporting, which is not the case for a lot of banks.

Impaired loans fell $2 million to $40 million but the sum of past due loans more than doubled over three months to $40 million.