Bulletin: Westpac Banking Corp. Ratings Unchanged On Half-Year Results

SYDNEY (S&P Global Ratings) May 2, 2016--S&P Global Ratings today said that its ratings on Westpac Banking Corp. (Westpac; AA-/Stable/A-1+) are unchanged following the announcement of its half-year results today. Our ratings on Westpac's subsidiaries, including its wholly owned New Zealand banking subsidiary Westpac New Zealand Ltd., also remain unchanged. Cash earnings at Westpac were up 3% to A$3.9 billion from A$3.8 billion in the prior corresponding period, which is in line with our expectations. Relative to peers internationally we consider Westpac's earnings as strong. In our view, the key drivers for the change in cash earnings were: An improvement in net interest income reflecting the repricing of mortgages (as a result of increased regulatory capital requirements) and the repricing

...SYDNEY (S&P Global Ratings) May 2, 2016--S&P Global Ratings today said that its ratings on Westpac Banking Corp. (Westpac; ##-/Stable/A-1+) are unchanged following the announcement of its half-year results today. Our ratings on Westpac's subsidiaries, including its wholly owned New Zealand banking subsidiary Westpac New Zealand Ltd., also remain unchanged. Cash earnings at Westpac were up 3% to A$3.9 billion from A$3.8 billion in the prior corresponding period, which is in line with our expectations. Relative to peers internationally we consider Westpac's earnings as strong. In our view, the key drivers for the change in cash earnings were: + An improvement in net interest income reflecting the repricing of mortgages (as a result of increased regulatory capital requirements) and the repricing of customer deposits; + Lower noninterest income reflecting the impact of the partial sale of Westpac's BT Investment Management shareholding and lower banking fees and commissions; and + An increase...

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