MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) April 30, 2013--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ; AA-/Stable/A-1+) were unchanged following the announcement today by ANZ of its 2013 first-half results. Our rating outlook on ANZ remains stable. ANZ's result was strong overall, by international standards, and broadly in-line with current rating expectations. Statutory profit after tax of A$2.9 billion was up 7%, compared with the second half of 2012. Key asset quality metrics also improved, as indicated by the 10% decline in gross impaired assets to A$4.7 billion, compared with the second half of 2012; and the lower provisioning costs. We consider that ANZ's capitalization continues to be consistent with our
