ANZ today announced[1] a Statutory Profit for the half ended 31 March 2026 (1H26) of $3,650 million and a Cash Profit[2] of $3,780 million.
Cash Profit was up 70% on the second half of the financial year ended 30 September 2025. Excluding the impact of 2H25 significant items, Cash Profit was up 14%. Cash Return on Tangible Equity (RoTE) was up 161 basis points (bps) to 11.6%.
ANZ's Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) Ratio at 31 March 2026 was 12.39%, up 36 bps from 30 September 2025.
Overview of financial performance
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CEO Commentary
ANZ Chief Executive Officer Nuno Matos said: "This half year result demonstrates three things. First, our transformation is running at pace, and we are making good progress in executing our five immediate priorities safely, sustainably, and on time.
"Second, in parallel, we are investing in line with our ANZ 2030 strategic initiatives, to deliver for our customers, accelerate growth and outperform the market beyond 2027.
"Third, importantly we are already delivering materially better returns for shareholders.
"Our half year cash profit of $3.78 billion was up 14% on the previous half, when excluding significant items, as we simplified our business and reduced duplication and settled long-standing regulatory matters. Importantly, we saw an improvement across all key financial metrics compared with the second half of 2025. This includes return on tangible equity which rose to 11.6% and a cost to income ratio at 49.4%. An interim dividend of 83 cents per share, with franking rising from 70% to 75%, was driven by an improvement in the Australian geography performance.
"Our Institutional and New Zealand divisions continued to perform well, while the transformation of Australia Retail and Business & Private Bank in line with our strategy is underway. While lending volumes and deposits grew moderately, active margin management meant margins remained stable for the half amid intense competition.
"We have moved at pace to make good progress on our five immediate priorities. We have refreshed our leadership team and commenced our cultural reset with new corporate values, and are on track to accelerate the integration of Suncorp Bank and deliver the ANZ single customer front-end. We have also made significant progress to reduce duplication and simplify the bank, while continuing to make progress in improving non-financial risk management. These actions, combined with our initial investment for growth, are laying solid foundations for the second phase of our strategy, which will significantly improve our customers' experience and revenue growth.
"As we progress this work, we continue to operate in an increasingly complex world. As Australia's most international bank we have a front-row seat to global developments. Much of the potential impact of this crisis remains ahead of us, but the longer the flow of oil is constrained, the greater the chance the crisis shifts from being primarily an inflation challenge, to much more a supply and growth challenge.
"Our customers understand the world is more complex. Our corporate customers have been preparing for shocks, building capital and liquidity, maintaining flexibility and improving supply chain resilience. As such, there has been no material change in the overall borrowing behaviour of our customers.
"Likewise, in both Australia and New Zealand, households entered this period with generally strong balance sheets and high savings buffers. We have not seen any material increase in new customers entering hardship or receiving assistance. However, we recognise that some individuals and businesses are navigating these challenging circumstances. We urge customers who may need assistance to contact us.
"The impact of the current crisis on ANZ's credit, capital and liquidity position has been minimal to date. As a business that's structured to be highly diversified, optimise capital use and focused on transaction banking, ANZ has entered this period with a strong balance sheet and deep customer relationships. This means we can adapt to periods of uncertainty, manage risk and find opportunities to support our customers.
"However, the situation remains dynamic and we are prepared for a range of outcomes. Reflecting this raised risk in the external environment, we have increased our collective provisions, with our coverage ratio up 4 basis points. We continue to watch the situation closely.
"Today we also release the first Promontory independent assurance report confirming ANZ's progress as we improve our non-financial risk management practices and risk culture, following the release of the establishment report in November. We have made important steps forward and continuing to uplift our practices is a key priority.
"The result announced today confirms our actions to reset the bank are working, but we have more to do. As we look ahead, we continue to focus on executing our ANZ 2030 strategy as we progress our five-year journey to be the best bank for customers and shareholders in Australia and New Zealand," Mr Matos concluded.
Progress under the ANZ 2030 strategy five immediate priorities
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Credit quality
- Portfolio losses remain low, reflecting continued strong overall credit quality and limited impact from the Middle East conflict during the half.
- The 1H26 Individual Provision (IP) charge was $148 million, $20 million lower than 2H25. This represents a 4bps annualised IP loss rate, in line with the FY25 levels.
- Conflict in the Middle East is translating to greater economic uncertainty, with expectations of lower growth, higher inflation and interest rates likely to challenge some customers.
- For the half we have taken a Collective Provision charge of $126 million, which included a $175 million charge for the potential impacts of the Middle East conflict partially offset by improvement in underlying portfolio credit quality.
- The Collective Provision balance increased to $4.45 billion, with the ratio of Collective Provision balance to credit Risk Weighted Assets up 4bps from 30 September 2025 to 1.22%.
- Non-performing exposures to total credit exposure was 0.55% at 31 March 2026, down 2bps from 30 September 2025 (0.57%).
Capital, funding, liquidity and dividend
- Level 2 CET1 capital ratio for Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZBGL and, together with its subsidiaries, ANZBGL Group) was 12.39% at 31 March 2026. The increase from 12.03% as of 30 September 2025 includes the return of surplus capital to ANZBGL, including capital from ceasing the remaining ~$800 million of the share buy-back as announced in October 2025, as well as the discounted Dividend Reinvestment Plan utilised for the Final 2025 dividend.
- The Board has proposed a 2026 Interim Dividend of 83 cents per share, with franking rising from 70% to 75%, driven by an improvement in the Australian geography performance.
- Our current capital levels are appropriate. As a result, no discount will apply to the Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) for the interim dividend, which will now be neutralised through an on-market purchase of shares. It is our intention to continue to neutralise future DRPs.
- Liquidity ratios remained broadly stable in 1H26, with the average liquidity coverage ratio of 132% and a net stable funding ratio of 115% at 31 March 2026, both remaining well above regulatory minimums.
- $15.5 billion of term wholesale debt was issued across the ANZBGL Group in 1H26.
Tracking our Progress for ANZ 2030
Interviews with relevant executives, including Nuno Matos, can be found at anz.com.au/bluenotes
