I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Brett Morgan, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, Darcy, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us for our interim, interim 2026 results briefing. I'm Brett Morgan, MyState's Managing Director and CEO, and with me is Gary Dickson, our CFO. Earlier today, we launched our 1H 2026 financial results with the ASX, and these are also available on our website. With respect to today's agenda, I will begin with an overview of the interim result and an update on the progress against our priorities before Gary takes you through the financials in more detail. I will then end the presentation with a summary of our ongoing priorities, after which we will welcome questions. Before I kick off, I would like to say that I'm proud of the progress we've made since completing the transformational merger between MyState and Auswide a year ago. Moving to slide 4.
In the first half, we delivered double-digit profit growth, both on a reported and pro forma basis. On a reported basis, underlying NPAT was up 18.4%. On a pro forma basis, which incorporates Auswide's earnings for the full period, underlying NPAT was up 23% on 1H 2025, and up 13% on 2H 2025. These details have been provided in our ASX announcement. Home loan book growth over the period reflects MyState Bank growing broadly at system, and the deliberate decision to use the Auswide balance sheet to grow the higher margin equipment finance business. This decision to prioritize equipment finance was at the expense of the Auswide home loan portfolio, which contracted 4% over the half. Decisions paid off with our equipment finance business growing 64%.
Pleasingly, we saw significant acceleration in home loan application volumes in the second quarter, and the Auswide home loan book has now returned to growth. We also saw an increased contribution from our high-returning wealth business. We made good progress with the integration of our two retail banks over the half, with annualized run rate synergies of AUD 10.4 million, slightly above previous guidance, and the successful transition to a single banking license in December. We are well capitalized, which gives us flexibility to invest and grow into the future. The board has declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.12 per share, fully franked, up from AUD 0.105 per share in 1H 2025. Gary will talk more about the dividend later. Slide 5 provides an overview of some of our key metrics.
Underlying earnings per share rose 11.1% over the half to 16.6 cents per share, Net Promoter Score up from +54 at the full year. Turning to slide 6. As previously mentioned, we've made good progress on integrating our retail banks, with 98 out of the 215 integration initiatives complete. Following 12 months of integration and change, early this month, we surveyed all of our staff to understand their perspective on risk culture and risk management, and also the level of employee engagement. Both results are very positive and reflect the significant progress we have made in aligning our culture and operating model. In December, the group transitioned to a single banking license, banking license, delivering immediate capital, revenue, and efficiency benefits.
As an example, we were quickly able to optimize the level of liquidity we hold. After extensive market research and consideration, early today, I shared with our staff the decision to adopt MyState as a single future bank brand for our retail bank. We are currently planning for this transition and look forward to the opportunity to build and leverage a single brand into the future. We also progressed other key initiatives over the half, including the build of our new loan origination system, vendor assessment for a single core banking system, and ongoing supply chain consolidation. The integration budget remains unchanged at AUD 29 million. Turning to slide 7. During the half, we focused on driving value across each of our business lines. Our home lending growth profile improved every month through the half, with December delivering the highest month of growth over the half.
Pleasingly, second quarter applications were 35% above Q1 applications. To strengthen our deposit business, in December, we launched Hello Saver, a hassle-free online savings proposition to attract customers beyond our heartland markets. This complements our existing branch and partnership deposit-gathering capabilities. Selfco, our higher margin equipment finance business, continues to go from strength to strength. In the first half, the loan book grew 64%, and the business contributed 6% of the group's underlying NPAT. Our TPT Wealth business continued to build on recent positive momentum. Trustee services funds under management grew 11% to AUD 531 million, reflecting the investment into our new compensation trust business line. We have also continued to drive efficiency through a range of process enhancements, which supported TPT's 27% profit increase over the period.
Pleasingly, our high-returning equipment finance business and wealth businesses delivered 11% of the group's underlying NPAT over the half. I'll now hand over to Gary, who will take us through the financial results in more detail.
Thanks, Brett, and good morning, everyone. Slide 9 contains a summary of this half's financial performance relative to both the first and second halves of FY 2025, with the second half including the addition of Auswide for approximately 4.5 months. The financial analysis included in subsequent slides focuses on 1H 2026 relative to 2H 2025, being the more representative period for comparison purposes. Our key financial metrics, including operating income, core earnings, and underlying NPAT, were all well above last period's result. As Brett mentioned, underlying NPAT was up 23% and 13% on the last two halves on a pro forma basis. Total operating expenses were also up, primarily reflecting the addition of Auswide.
Costs continue to be well managed, with operating expenses broadly in line with 1H 2025 and 2H 2025 on a pro forma basis, with merger-related synergies largely offsetting underlying inflation-based cost growth. The bank's cost-to-income ratio improved by 60 basis points over the half, while the group cost-to-income ratio improved by 40 basis points. Underlying return on tangible equity improved 20 basis points to 9.4% in the half. Turning to slide 10, underlying NPAT of AUD 28.2 million was up 18.4% on the prior period, driven by higher net interest and other banking income, partly offset by increased operating expenditure due to the larger merged group cost base. Underlying NPAT excludes merger-related integration costs and fair value adjustments, totaling AUD 0.9 million, which are all included in the statutory NPAT result of AUD 27.3 million.
Net interest income increased 12% due to a larger average balance sheet, while other banking income rose 32%. Wealth management income rose 12% due to higher trustee services income and loan establishment fees associated with the commercial lending portfolio. Selfco, our equipment finance business, continues to scale and has moved from being broadly breakeven at the time of acquisition to contributing AUD 1.8 million of underlying NPAT for the half. Slide 11 provides a more granular breakdown of drivers of the change in net interest margin for the half. NIM was down on the most recent half, but higher on the prior corresponding period. During the half, key themes for NIM were home loan and deposit price competition, customer switching behavior, the impact of reductions in the cash rate, higher capital relief securitization, and running two bank balance sheets.
These impacts were partly offset by a positive contribution from the higher margin Selfco business. Exit NIM in December 2025 was slightly higher than average NIM in the half, partly due to the benefits of moving to a single banking license on 1 December, which provided, for example, the opportunity to optimize our MLH or liquid asset portfolio. Looking forward, the recent increase in the cash rate, operating a single balance sheet, and a growing Selfco loan book all support NIM. Slide 12 provides a breakdown of operating costs in the half. The increase in expenses, including people and technology costs, primarily reflects the inclusion of Auswide in the group for the full period. On a pro forma basis, operating expenses in the half were broadly in line with 1H 2025 and 2H 2025, with AUD 5 million of realized merger-related synergies, largely offsetting underlying inflation-based cost growth.
Underlying expense growth remains a focus and continues to be well managed. Slide 13 provides a summary of the anticipated ranges and timing of synergies and the cost of integration on an annual basis through to FY 2028. For the outer years, these represent our current best estimates, and the actual timing may differ. Both integration and the realization of synergies is proceeding as expected. As we've previously disclosed, the merger is expected to yield annual pre-tax cost synergies of AUD 20-25 million in FY 2028. We've provided a range with respect to integration costs, noting that our best estimate remains AUD 29 million. The current annualized synergies achieved to 31 December of AUD 10.4 million, are expected to offset underlying cost growth in FY 2026. Turning to slide 14, our home loan portfolio increased by 0.4% to AUD 12.9 billion at 31 December.
As Brett noted earlier, momentum continues to build in the home lending space, with a significant uplift in applications in the second quarter. The group continued to focus on low-risk, owner-occupied lending, as reflected in our loans, with an LVR of less than 80%, making up approximately 79% of the total book. High LVR lending is generally provided to borrowers eligible to participate in the Australian government's 5% deposit scheme. The chart at the top right of this slide highlights that credit quality across the group continues to improve, with 90-day arrears at 28 basis points, well below the sector's average and down from 44 basis points at 30 June. Home loan customers continue to demonstrate resilience, with both employment and housing markets remaining stable across Australia. Moving to slide 15, the chart on the bottom right highlights the customer deposit ratio remained broadly stable at 70%.
During the half, we saw a move from term deposits to at-call savings products. As Brett mentioned earlier, in December, we launched a new savings product, Hello Saver, to support deposit growth by providing customers with a competitive, digitally offered savings account. This product will also provide additional flexibility to run off more price sensitive deposits. Securitization remains an important source of funding, and with the backdrop of very positive wholesale funding market conditions, in October 2025, MyState issued its largest ever capital relief term securitization at the lowest cost to date for the Conquest program. Slide 16 shows the group remains well capitalized, with dividends supported by the organic generation of capital. Pleasingly, the move to a single banking license on 1 December, improves our ability to manage capital more efficiently.
As at 31 December, the total capital ratio was managed down to 16.9%, following scheduled eligible Tier 2 subordinated debt redemptions in July and September, totaling AUD 37 million. MyState's strong capital position provides us with the flexibility to continue to invest in key initiatives and grow our home loan and equipment finance books. Turning to slide 17, TPT Wealth has continued its recent strong momentum. In the first half, revenue was up AUD 8.3 million, up 12% on the prior period, driven by growth in commercial lending activity and trustee services income. Trustee services funds under management grew 11% to AUD 531 million, due to growth in compensation trusts and managed funds. FUM increased 2%. Slide 18 provides a snapshot of our equipment finance business, Selfco.
Selfco's target market is Australian small businesses seeking to purchase business-critical assets used to generate income. The majority of the book by asset type comprises trucks and trailers. Selfco originates loans nationally via the broker channel, supported by BDMs on the ground in key states. As noted earlier, we've prioritized investment in Selfco to take advantage of its strength as a fast-growing, higher-margin business. The loan book has grown 135% since the merger, and its revenue and cost profile continue to improve as the book grows. Overall, credit quality remains sound, with credit loss provisioning in line with historical loss rates. Business contributed 6% of the group's underlying NPAT in the first half.
Finally, moving to slide 19, the board has declared an interim dividend of AUD 0.12 per share, fully franked, representing a payout ratio of 72.2% of underlying net profit after tax. The interim dividend is up AUD 0.01 and AUD 0.015 per share, respectively, on the prior two periods. The board considered a range of factors when declaring this half's dividend, including MyState's capital position and growth outlook, as well as underlying growth in earnings per share. The dividend reinvestment plan will be offered to shareholders at a discount of 1.5%. I'll now hand you back to Brett to summarize our key priorities as we look ahead.
Thanks, Gary. Over the next six months, we will continue to execute on our integration priorities to deliver synergies and ultimately shareholder value. We will accelerate growth in our retail bank, scale our equipment finance business, and target growth in our funds and private trustee business. We will also seek and consider inorganic opportunities that deliver value for our business and shareholders. Moving to slide 22. MyState Group's investment case is clear. As this interim result demonstrates, we've made good early progress to extract cost synergies, and the business and key financial metrics are trending in the right direction. We are well capitalized, have a track record of profitability, an attractive dividend yield, and are targeting double-digit EPS growth based on full run rate merger synergies.
We have an experienced management team that has a proven ability to execute, and we look forward to profitably growing our retail banking, wealth, and equipment finance businesses into the future. Gary and I will now answer any questions you may have. Over to you, Darcy, to moderate.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you would like to cancel, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question today comes from Nathan Lead from Morgans Financial. Please go ahead.
G'day, Brett and Gary. Thanks for your presentation. Just a couple of questions from me. So first up, you mentioned that, excuse me, the exit NIM was stronger than the average for the half. Can you just make a comment on what sort of improvement came through there?
Yeah. Hi, hi, Nathan. Yeah, exit NIM was a couple of basis points higher than the average of 146 for the half. The sort of benefit to the month comprised the runoff of some excess liquidity that we had off the back of our term securitization deal that we did back in October. That just takes a little bit of time to sort of run down. We do, through the move to a single ADI bank balance sheet, it gave us the first real opportunity to optimize our MLH portfolio. They were two of the key contributors.
Okay, great. Thank you. Secondly, you know, looking at the mortgage book, it was obviously a bit flat during the period, but you said how it had returned to growth. What sort of levels of growth are you targeting going forward, noting that there's some pretty strong system growth in mortgages out there at the moment?
Yeah. Hi, Nathan, it's Brett. Good to talk to you. We, as I shared, each month, we had accelerated growth, so at, and early, we decided to sort of prioritize Selfco growth. A nd to be honest, it had a bit more of an impact than we were expecting, so slightly disappointing from that perspective. Kind of over the last few months, we've been growing closer to market, and our expectation is we'll grow at or above market for the next period.
Yep. Okay, cool. And then, you know, when I look at slide 14, where it's got the chart there showing your sort of risk profile of the mortgage book, I mean, it's way below where sort of competitors' averages are. I mean, does that give you an opportunity, I suppose, to take on more risk within the mortgage book, and therefore greater return? Or is it something that you're doing partly to supposed to invest capital into the, the higher risk equipment finance, higher risk, higher return equipment finance book?
Yeah. The short answer is both. We have historically been a very, very conservative lending organization, as evidenced by the incredibly, relatively low 90 days arrears rate. I mean, one of the benefits... and with that, it comes, you know, sort of lower margins, as we appreciate. One of the opportunities for us is absolutely, you know, within our home loan book, where we've got a relatively low investor loan profile, and we have a very high sort of sub-80 lower LVR investment profile. We do have a lot of capacity within our appetite to grow that, and that is an active action. The second part is, yeah, allocating some capital to continue to allocate a bit of capital to Selfco, our equipment finance business.
The returns on that business are strong, and we're, you know, happy and proud to continue to, you know, continue to grow that business and allocate capital out to, to support NIM into the future.
Thank you. I'll let someone else ask questions.
Thanks, Nathan.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Alastair Hunter, from Ord Minnett. Please go ahead.
Morning, Brett and Gary. Thanks for your time and opportunity to ask some questions. Just interested a little bit on the decision today, you've announced of the one brand, MyState. Can you sort of talk through what that will, you know, consecutively now mean for some of your product decisions and technology platform, both at the core banking and origination?
Yeah, absolutely. So hi, Alastair, it's good to talk to you. Today was announcing the decision, and I guess the thinking behind it was, we did extensive research in our home markets of you know Tasmania and Queensland, and more broadly, and MyState is relatively very strong a brand in Tasmania, and across the rest of the country, we have an opportunity with our brand to position it in a way to support growth. So we took the decision to go with one brand, given the cost profile of trying to operate two brands or a new brand, and the relative strength of MyState with the size of the customer base. So it made a lot of sense.
We will now go into work on, you know, things like how we're gonna position the brand to attract, you know, lots more customers into the future. The rollout of the brand, or the name, I'll call it, 'cause the brand doesn't effectively change too much. We're very customer-centric, service-centric, group of people who really care for customers, as evidenced by our Net Promoter Score. The actual, you know, final positioning we're working through now, we'll roll that out in the ensuing period. The impact on core banking systems, it's not tied. We continue to, and getting closer to finalizing our assessment and decision on core banking providers, and other matters don't necessarily change. This is simply how we want to position our brand, name into the future. It's just...
Today is only a decision, it's not... and sharing that decision, it's not actually about rolling it out at this stage. So customers, there's no impact to customers at all at this time.
And then just in the synergy table you've put out, the update in terms of your sort of scheduling of expected timing. So the push out of implementation costs from this year to next year, but increasing this year's gains in terms of expected run rates by sort of AUD 1 million, AUD 2 million, respectively. Can you just talk through what actually is, has driven that actual project scenario?
Yeah. Yeah, in terms of, I guess there's two sides. One is extracting the synergies, and one is investing or spending money to extract the synergies. In terms of the actual synergies, we have executed in line with plan and actually found a few additional savings that we didn't imagine, and we've, you know, learning that our purchasing power is stronger, and it helps with, you know, vendor costs and things like that. We've actually had some, I'll call them, some small wins, relatively small wins to extract a bit more value across that.
As a profile, it's broadly, you know, a third is vendor-related, a third related to the board and exec consolidation right up front, and a third's related to reduced duplication, and that's across systems, some people, those sorts of things. We expect that sort of third-third-third profile to continue. Sorry, except the board exec, and that profile will continue into the future. In terms of the spend, we have actually been able to execute a bit more in-house than requiring third party consultants. But in terms of the progress, we're in line with where we expected to be. We still provide that range of expected costs, and we still expect the, you know, maximum cost to be AUD 29 million over the horizon.
And I think the only thing I'd add, Alastair, is we've previously sort of communicated that the first half of this financial year was always gonna be a sort of phase of deep analysis as we work through the key decisions around the core banking system brand, et cetera. So yeah, sort of confident with where that forecast is for FY 2026, and as I sort of indicated in my earlier comments, FY 2027 and FY 2028, look, you know, there's always scope for the sort of timing profile to change a little bit.
If I can ask, it's probably for you, Gary, on the Selfco business. Now, excellent result, particularly given the initial sort of breakeven position on acquisition. The slide 18 data, the bottom right, Gary, the monthly Selfco revenue. So the 31 December numbers, is that the month of December, or is that the average for the-
Yeah, no, so the-
-month to December?
So that's the month of December. So then obviously what you'll also... What we also need to think about there is, so that's effectively a pre-provision operating profit number, obviously. So as I mentioned, we're providing, so building the collective provision as the book grows in line with historical loss rates. So you'd need to allow for bad and doubtful debts, and then of course, tax, and yeah. But you can see from that profile that it's a particularly strong uplift month-on-month.
So given that, I mean, the run rate ROE on that's substantially above what you can extract from a home loan at the moment, what are you sort of thinking about in terms of your capital allocation going forward, in terms of, you know, putting money into growth at Selfco versus trying to, you know, recommence growth back in the home loan book?
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things we see from a group perspective is one way of getting margin, sorry, margin, ROE, EPS accretion is through growth in the capital-light, higher-returning business of TPT Wealth, and also as you highlight, the higher-returning Selfco book. They're both currently sort of low double digit ROE, and as the Selfco book scales, yeah, it's certainly one avenue to get accretion into our return on equity from a group perspective.
Our thinking is we will continue to grow the Selfco business as a proportion, much more quickly, as a percentage, more quickly than the home loan growth, so which would be accretive. We're conscious of, you know, the diversification that it brings, which is a positive, without being too overexposed to it over time.
And finally, before I free it up to others, just on the deposit side, your two sort of big initiatives, you mentioned your Hello launch product side on the at-call, and then you've also got within the Auswide franchise, the Elders alliance. So can you just talk perhaps in terms of what you're seeing post period end and sort of growth across those? Because it does look like you're struggling relative to system, to grow your at-call deposits on those two, what's your ambitions to get growth back in your deposit at-call book?
Yeah. Yeah, the headline deposit growth rate does show some subdued growth. There's a couple factors to that. We did our, you know, significant securitization, a couple of securitization in the half, which reduced our, you know, need for deposits. If we break our deposits down, our sort of direct, or what I call prime deposits, our preferred deposits, grew quicker than 0.4%, so it grew around 2% over the half. And that's sort of our branch deposits and digital deposits and Elders, so it did grow faster than that number. We ran down the sort of higher cost, you know, third party deposits. In terms of Elders and Hello Saver, Hello Saver was a soft launch in December, and is getting some nice momentum.
We're starting to promote it now, so it's seeing some benefits from that. With Elders, the prime time of the year is starting into the half, into the full year, so we expect to see a significant acceleration in the growth of Elders. So they complement our sort of branch distribution network, and our capability to raise deposits online and more generally. So yeah, my expectation is we'll see a acceleration in those.
Thank you.
Thanks, Alastair.
Thank you. Once again, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Nathan Zaia, from Morningstar. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Just had a bit of a follow-up on the deposit one to start. Can you, in terms of the cost of deposits, so this mix change that you're getting from term to at call, that's not supportive of NIM in any way? Like, are they pretty much just matching customer demand at this point?
Yeah, it's matching customer demand. We call it broadly neutral, depending on where we are in the rate cycle, but it's just basically a customer behavior. We're generally seeing that people are switching, you know, and TD pricing sort of moves around a bit. But yeah, I'd call it broadly neutral, Nathan.
Okay. With Selfco, can you just remind us the strong growth you are getting, is that... Do you put it down to just it being, you know, relationship based? Like it's, it's not driven by sharp rates at all, is it?
No, no. It's so it's a business that's been around for a long time, and they had some structural challenges as warehouse funded, and but they built over time, you know, the systems process had the people and the energy to go and the relationships, it's broker distributed in the relationships. So what we've done is freed them up from the constraints they had, which was funding and capital effectively. And so we've allocated capital to support the business grow. They haven't changed their risk profile dynamics. If anything, we ensure the oversight on risk management is tighter than it has ever been within the business, but they're naturally very conscious of the risk profile, given their long tenure in that types of businesses.
So no, effectively just providing them the access to funding capital to allow them to accelerate on the platform that was already in place.
Okay. So you would have no concerns that you can't keep growing quickly without underpricing for risk, like you're, that's-
No, no, I wouldn't.
-constraint at all.
No, and wouldn't do it, Nathan. I'm just very conscious of, you know, the credit risk and other risks that surround that type of business. So, Rob, the GM, and other people within the business have been, you know, in this industry for 20+ years, and so they understand inside out, and they understand the risk return profiles of the business. So no, confident that we will not take any risk, any adjustments to the risk profile.
Okay. And just very quickly, and you pointed out investment in broker distribution. Can you just elaborate what that means? Is that adding people or process or?
Yeah, it's a couple things. We had. We consolidated the broker team, so one of the early sort of consolidations in our retail banking part of the business, we consolidated the product team, the broker distribution team. And we also took the decision to bring in some, a few people in leadership roles to lead the team going forward, and we have. You know, that did also, you know, bring some higher expectations and some capability that we're very happy with. So that investment was at a leadership level, and that's flowing through to our performance in the market now.
Okay.
Separately, sorry, Nathan, separately to that, we're continuing to invest in our loan origination system, which will provide us with that sort of operating scale capability when we launch that.
Yeah. Okay. Nice. Thank you.
Thanks, Nathan.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Morgan for any closing remarks.
Yeah, thanks, Darcy, and thanks everyone for joining today. And Gary and I look forward to catching up with some of you over the months ahead. Thanks a lot.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.