Bank of New Zealand Analysis

Overview

BNZ was incorporated on July 29, 1861 and its ultimate parent bank is National Australia Bank Limited. The businesses and affairs of BNZ and all of its wholly owned entities (the Banking Group) are managed by, or under the direction or supervision of, the BNZ Board of Directors and the BNZ Chief Executive Officer in compliance with the requirements and regulations of the Banking Group's primary regulator, the RBNZ. BNZ is a registered bank under the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act 1989.

The Banking Group is one of New Zealand's largest banking organizations and provides a broad range of banking and financial products and services to retail, business, agribusiness, corporate and institutional clients. The Banking Group is organised into three major operating and reportable segments: Private, Wealth & Insurance, Corporate & Institutional Banking and BNZ Partnership Banking. These segments are supported by the specialist units of Customer, Product and Services, Corporate Affairs, Finance, People, Risk, Technology and Operations, and Transformation and Strategy.

Performance

The following information was extracted from the Bank of New Zealand's half year results, released 4 May 2026

BNZ 2026 Half Year Result

BNZ today announced its half year result to 31 March 2026, reporting a statutory net profit of $494 million, down $301 million or 37.9% on the prior year.

This was primarily driven by a one-off reduction in BNZ’s capitalised software assets due to changes to its software capitalisation policy. Excluding this one-off adjustment, BNZ’s net profit was down $48 million to $747 million.

Revenue was broadly flat, up 0.7% to $1,760 million, while operating expenses excluding the one-off adjustment were up 4.3% to $701 million.

BNZ increased its credit impairment provisioning by $20 million year on year to a total of $995 million. This includes a forward-looking adjustment for the potential impacts of the Middle East conflict.

A reflection of the NZ economy pre-conflict

BNZ CEO Dan Huggins says this result is largely a reflection of the New Zealand economy prior to the Middle East conflict.

“The first half of the year saw many New Zealand businesses anticipating a steady return to economic growth. We saw both housing and business lending increase, as household and business confidence improved.” BNZ’s home lending was up 6.6% and business lending up 2.2% on the prior period. Total lending was up $5.1 billion or 4.7% to $113.6 billion.

Total customer deposits increased by $4.5 billion or 5.3% to $89.9 billion. BNZ’s net interest margin was down 4 basis points as strong competition for customers continued. “While it was pleasing to see a return to confidence in the New Zealand economy, the Middle East conflict has eroded that positive sentiment and our customers have once again had to adjust quickly,” says Huggins.