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Big 4 bank reveals $817m profit hit
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has lowered investors’ expectations, announcing profits for the first half of 2021 have fallen by $817 million.

Big 4 bank reveals $817m profit hit
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group has lowered investors’ expectations, announcing profits for the first half of 2021 have fallen by $817 million.

In a statement released by the big four bank to the market on Friday, ANZ said its first half cash profits after tax would be impacted due to write-downs associated with its investment in a Malaysian bank and rising remediation costs.
The bank said this was due to “a number of notable items”, including $135 million of losses from its investment in Malaysian banking group AmBank, and $251 million in goodwill write-downs to its share investing business, which ANZ flagged it would look to sell in the near future.
The write-down of goodwill attributed to AmBank follows the $700 million settlement between the Malaysian retail bank and the Malaysian government over the 1MDB scandal which saw millions of dollars from the state fund go missing.
ANZ said it had also been hit with $108 million of additional customer remediation costs and $63 million of restructuring and divestment costs associated with its simplification strategy.
The bank’s remediation expenses represent a significant rise from the first half of the 2020 year, where it paid out $91 million in remediation.
The announcement follows Westpac’s statement earlier this week announcing it would take a $282 million hit to the bottom line due to remediation costs offsetting gains through bitcoin platform Coinbase and shares sold in ZIP.
Westpac is due to deliver its interim results on Monday followed by ANZ on Wednesday and NAB on Thursday.

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