National Australia Bank and ANZ Banking Group said rising bad debts are eroding profit growth as losses spread from financial markets to the wider economy, reports Bloomberg. NAB, the country’s biggest by assets, on Friday said quarterly earnings stalled at A$1.1bn ($716m) as provisions rose 19% from the preceding three months. ANZ, the fourth-biggest lender, forecast a fall in first-half profit of more than 15% from a year earlier. Earlier this week Macquarie Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Suncorp-Metway warned profits would fall as the economy slumps and delinquent loans rise.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 5:28 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with anz, nab. Edit this entry.