Bulletin: No Change To Ratings On Westpac Banking Corp. Upon Half-Year Results

SYDNEY (Standard&Poor's) May 4, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it has no concerns with respect to its issuer credit ratings on Westpac Banking Corp. (Westpac; AA-/Stable/A-1+), following the announcement of its flat half-year results today, which saw a sharp fall in its equity price. Our ratings on Westpac and its subsidiaries, including its wholly owned New Zealand banking subsidiary Westpac New Zealand Ltd., remain unchanged. In our view, the overall profitability for Westpac remains strong relative to international peers; compared to the prior corresponding period cash earnings (A$3.8 billion) and statutory net profit (A$3.6 billion) were level. We note that the result was impacted by a lower treasury contribution and the introduction of methodology changes

...SYDNEY (Standard & Poor's) May 4, 2015--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it has no concerns with respect to its issuer credit ratings on Westpac Banking Corp. (Westpac; ##-/Stable/A-1+), following the announcement of its flat half-year results today, which saw a sharp fall in its equity price. Our ratings on Westpac and its subsidiaries, including its wholly owned New Zealand banking subsidiary Westpac New Zealand Ltd., remain unchanged. In our view, the overall profitability for Westpac remains strong relative to international peers; compared to the prior corresponding period cash earnings (A$3.8 billion) and statutory net profit (A$3.6 billion) were level. We note that the result was impacted by a lower treasury contribution and the introduction of methodology changes in derivative valuations; however, the underlying operating performance of operating divisions was solid. The group's net interest margin (excluding Treasury & Markets) remained unchanged at 2.01%. We understand...

Bulletin