Hongkong bank mortgage market share, profits drop

by Jenny Ruth

Friday 7th October 2005

The bank's June quarter disclosure document shows its mortgage book rose to $2.167 billion from $2.165 billion at the end of March but was down from $2.31 billion at the end of June last year. The latter figure is $563.8 million lower than the previously published figure, reflecting loans to loss attributing qualifying companies for the purpose of residential property investment which have been reclassified as other lending.

Using Reserve Bank figures, that means the bank's share of the mortgage market dropped to 2.02% from 2.09% at the end of March and 2.49% at the end of June last year.

The central bank's figures show the total mortgage market (excluding Superbank) grew $3.8 billion to $107.16 billion in the June quarter.

HSBC has been losing market share since June 2003 when it bought AMP's $1.8 billion mortgage book. At the end of June 2003, it reported its mortgage book was $3.02 billion.

Hongkong bank's profitability also suffered during the June quarter, falling 4.6% to $5.6 million from the same quarter last year and from $8.25 million in the March quarter.

The bank's total assets also slipped to $6.4 billion at the end of June from$6.42 billion at the end of March but were up on the $6.29 billion at the end of June last year.

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