Banks fill their boots with home loans, shrink farm lending

Bank lending to farmers shrank in the June quarter. (Image: Livestock Improvement)

Thu, 26 Aug 2021

The five largest banks lent a net $7.85 billion more on mortgages in the June quarter but only $1.06b to businesses.The big four banks' net lending to agriculture actually shrank by $144.6 million in the latest quarter, according to data published on the Reserve Bank's bank financial strength dashboard.ANZ Bank New Zealand, the nation's largest bank, was responsible for all the reduction in lending to farmers with its agricultural book shrinking by $291.5m with BNZ's lending to the sector growing by a meagre $13.3m, Westpac'...

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