ANZ Group Holdings released its half-year results for the six months to 31 March 2026 on Friday, booking a collective provision charge of A$126 million that the bank said reflected a raised external risk environment.
The charge, which tops up the group's forward-looking provisions rather than covering specific bad debts, was flagged alongside the dividend announcement in the Melbourne-based lender's interim disclosure to the market.
PROVISIONS REFLECT EXTERNAL RISKS
In the results transcript published on ANZ's shareholder website, management said the A$126 million collective provision charge reflected the raised risk in the external environment, adding that the portfolio was strong but there were clearly risks to the domestic and global economies. Collective provisions are used by Australian banks to absorb potential future losses that may not yet be visible in individual customer accounts.
The charge included A$175 million for the potential impacts of the Middle East conflict, reflecting a 2.5 percentage point increase in the weighting of ANZ's severe scenario, partly offset by an improvement in underlying portfolio credit quality. The collective provision balance rose to A$4.45 billion, or 1.22% of credit risk-weighted assets, up 4 basis points from September 2025.
The half-year period covers the six months from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026.
INTERIM DIVIDEND PROPOSED
ANZ's board also proposed an interim dividend as part of the half-year results. The interim dividend was held at 83 cents per share, with franking raised to 75% from 70%.
ANZ said it would not apply a discount to the dividend reinvestment plan for the interim dividend, which will be neutralised.
ANZ is the first of the big four Australian banks to report interim numbers this season, with National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation due to follow in the coming days. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which runs on a June year-end, will provide its own trading update later in the cycle.