ANZ Group Lifts Annual Profit 23% as Operating Costs Fall

By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--ANZ Group lifted annual profit 23% as the Australia-based lender reported lower operating costs following recent job cuts and restructuring.

Melbourne-based ANZ on Monday reported a net profit for the 12 months through September of 7.27 billion Australian dollars, equivalent to US$4.99 billion.

ANZ, which is Australia's fourth largest lender by market capitalization, said statutory operating income was flat at A$22.14 billion.

The average analyst forecast had been for a net profit of almost A$7.40 billion from operating income of A$22.63 billion, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha.

Stripping out one-off items including the A$585 million in fiscal 2025 restructuring costs related to 3,500 redundancies, ANZ's cash profit rose by 10% to A$7.59 billion.

Net operating expenses fell by about 7% to A$11.07 billion on the same basis.

Net interest margin--a key indicator of lending profitability--contracted 2 basis points to 1.53%, with ANZ calling out factors including the impact of competition on asset pricing.

Last week, larger rival Westpac also pointed to competition, as well as the margin impact of central-bank interest-rate rises. The Reserve Bank of Australia has raised the cash rate five times in 2026, hiking it to an 18-year-high of 4.85% in an attempt to tame inflation.

ANZ held its dividend at A$0.83 a share, as widely expected by analysts.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 08, 2026 16:24 ET (21:24 GMT)