TSB Bank lifts profit as lending nears $1b

By KEVIN TAYLOR

New Plymouth-based TSB Bank has boosted its profits for the 15th consecutive year, and its total lending is approaching the $1 billion mark.

Managing director Kevin Rimmington yesterday announced a record tax-paid profit of $18.4 million for the year to March, up 10.8 per cent on the $16.6 million profit the year before.

Ranked 12th by total assets among registered banks, the New Zealand-owned bank has rated top in customer satisfaction surveys over the past three years.

Rimmington highlighted last year's Auckland University survey of bank customers, which rated TSB the best bank with the highest satisfaction rating (93 per cent).

He said that while its leadership in products and pricing were factors in the latest result, customer service was at the heart of TSB's success.

The bank was gaining customers from all over the country, and its lending portfolio had increased considerably, he said.

Total lending grew to $928 million from $786 million.

The bank had record home mortgage lending growth of 21 per cent, from $674 million to $816 million. TSB lends all over New Zealand.

Deposits increased by 14 per cent to $1.48 billion in the year.

Rimmington said that in the past four years a lot of deposit growth had been from outside Taranaki but last year the growth had come from within the province again.

"That would be a reflection of the increase in the farming sector. It has been very buoyant in the last 12 to 18 months."

He said TSB was looking this year at extending its lending operations outside the province, with the opening of new offices.

A record dividend of $4.1 million would go to the bank's owner, the TSB Community Trust.