Culture Club

Some small ethnically focused financial institutions in Australia are starting to stir, growing their mortgage and retail deposit portfolios after a period of relative dormancy, analysis published in both of the latest CoreData Australian Mortgage Report and Australian Cash Report.

Laiki Bank (Australia) increased Australian residential lending by $36 million to $341 million for the year to March 2009, with Arab Bank of Australia gaining $23 million to $242 million, and Bank of China jumping $55 million to $215 million.

Bank of Cyprus recorded a more modest $12 million increase to $158 million.

The four combined increased mortgage lending by $126 million to $956 million for the period.

Retail deposit growth for the four foreign minnows, all Australian Deposit-taking Institutions (ADI’s), is even stronger, with combined deposits increasing by $368 million to $1,742 million in the year to March 2009, an above system 27 per cent.

Arab Bank gained $186 million to $509 million, Bank of China increased $129 million to $384 million, with Bank of Cyprus gaining $68 million to $362 million.

The Laiki retail deposit book fell slightly for the period, down $15 million to $487 million.

While the majors in Australia sucked retail deposits in at an unprecedented rate of knots as the global financial crisis pushed the vast majority of investors into cash, it seems fears of foreign institutions going broke overnight was not the case for those investors who pumped money into the aforementioned groups.