Ladies and gentlemen, the time is now 9:30 A.M. As we have the required quorum of two members present. My name is Warren McLeland, I am the Chair of the company. I would like to welcome you all to our virtual AGM and now declare the formal proceedings of the meeting and the poll open. I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of this land on which we are meeting, and pay respects to their elders, past, present, and future. We trust that this is our last AGM to be held virtually.
Next year, we expect to convene this meeting using both virtual and live channels at which shareholders will once again be invited to be present. I'm joined today in person by my director colleagues, Duncan Saville, Susan Hansen, Caroline Waldron, along with Wayne Spanner, who joins us virtually from New York City. Resimac's key management team members present are CEO, Scott McWilliam, Company Secretary, Peter Fitzpatrick, Chief Financial Officer, Jason Azzopardi, Chief Operating Officer, Danielle Corcoran, and our General Manager for Asset Finance, Michael Moloney. Also present is Heather Buser from our auditing firm, Deloitte.
She and Jason Azzopardi are available to address questions you may have on the financial statements and the results therein. The notice of meeting has been sent to all shareholders and lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange on 14 October 2022. It has also been made available on the Resimac Group Limited website and hosted on the share registry website since that date. I will take the notice of meeting as read. I refer to the minutes of the last meeting of shareholders of the company, which was the annual general meeting held on 16 November 2021. The minutes of that meeting have been reviewed by the board and signed by me as chairman on January 20, 2022. The minutes are with the company secretary and are available for inspection. Shareholders will be asked to consider three resolutions at this meeting.
As chairman of the meeting, I exercise my right pursuant to the constitution of Resimac Group Limited to request a poll on these resolutions. In order to provide you with enough time to vote, I will ask the registry representative to open voting for all resolutions now. The login instructions on the online voting portal are detailed in the notice of meeting and the online voting guide. I will then read out the resolutions and allow time for shareholders to ask questions on the resolution. You may vote on any resolution at any time before I close the poll at the end of the meeting. However, before we commence the formal proceedings of each resolution, I would like to start with my chairman's address.
During FY 2022, COVID's impact on work absentees and the consequential staff shortages slowed down the scope and speed of our economic recovery out of the pandemic. Resimac was not immune from these challenges in Australia and New Zealand. Compounding this were the natural disasters, particularly in Australia, from bushfires followed by floods across the eastern states commencing in early 2021.
During the second half of FY 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine spearheaded and compounded supply chain shortages, resulting in global market turbulence and then inflation. The reaction was increasing interest rates, widening credit spreads, and higher volatility in all asset classes. No industry nor investor segment has been spared. It is axiomatic that risk and uncertainty has accelerated, and for at least the next six to nine months, there is little to no improvement expected. Despite the deteriorating macro environment, Resimac's financial performance for FY 2022 was outstanding. First half 2022 results were particularly impressive. Second half 2022 results are a fairer reflection of the current operating environment. Early in FY 2022, your board and executive leadership team allocated time and resources to recalibrate and refocus our medium-term business strategy, setting new priorities and measuring progress.
Our aim is to extend our industry leadership position among non-bank banks and to embed digital into our way of doing business. One of the major decisions has been to further expand our asset-based financing business. We aim to move to a dual business model with Asset Finance. Our cost-to-income ratio remained a low of 33.4%. We consider Resimac has an obligation which it refuses to accept to ensure ESG and climate change, in particular, plays a pivotal role in the group for the next 10 to 15 years. We have implemented several initiatives over the last few years, and our intention is to continue to expand our investment in this program. Your board is thrilled at the direct involvement of our people, who have enthusiastically contributed to a number of our initiatives.
Sustainability is one dimension of our ESG program and a principal driver underlying our ambition. On behalf of my fellow directors, I thank our shareholders and stakeholders for their support and loyalty. I acknowledge the extraordinary commitment of our employees and the amazing efforts they have made to enthusiastically contribute to a number of our initiatives. Sustainability is one dimension of our ESG program and a principal driver underlying our ambition. On behalf of my fellow directors, I thank our shareholders and stakeholders for their support and loyalty. I acknowledge the extraordinary commitment of our employees and the amazing efforts they have made in Australia, New Zealand, and Manila. In particular, to recognize the exemplary efforts of all those responsible for bringing to life our new origination and servicing platforms. I'd like now to pass to our CEO, Scott McWilliam, to address the meeting.
Good morning, everyone. Like Warren, I'm pleased to welcome you all to Resimac Group's annual general meeting. FY 2022 was a tale of two very different halves. The first half saw a record low cash rate driving fierce competition platforms.
I'd like now to pass to our CEO, Scott McWilliam, to address the meeting.
Good morning, everyone. Like Warren, I'm pleased to welcome you all to Resimac Group's annual general meeting. FY 2022 was a tale of two very different halves. The first half saw a record low cash rate driving fierce competition, especially in the fixed rate market. The second half saw a rapid monetary tightening cycle fueled by inflationary concerns, which has continued through and into FY 2023. Financial performance for the year ended 30 June 2022. Despite these macroeconomic challenges, Resimac has adapted. We were pleased to report continued strong growth in assets under management in FY 2022, including growing our home loans portfolio to more than AUD 15 billion for the first time while ensuring the best possible return for shareholders. We were able to achieve this milestone off the back of a series of successes. Our third-party distributor has adapted.
We were pleased to report continued strong growth in assets under management in FY 2022, including growing our home loans portfolio to more than $15 billion for the first time while ensuring the best possible return for shareholders. We were able to achieve this milestone off the back of a series of successes. Our third-party distribution partners were instrumental in helping us to increase our settlements by 30% compared with the prior comparative period. In addition, we've capitalized on the strength of our specialist products, which are well-supported by our brokers, bankers, and debt investors. Special mention needs to be made of the specialist portfolio, where assets under management increased by 55% in FY 2022.
Our settlements growth was driven by our focus on high yielding but low risk specialist products in preference of prime, where we made the strategic decision to avoid the race to the bottom on price. We were pleased to report that statutory and normalized profit was broadly in line with FY 2021, excluding one-offs. Normalized profits slightly increased to AUD 104.4 million. However, when we exclude the large non-cash fair value gains on our interest rate swaps of AUD 18.2 million, normalized profit, normalized NPAT is reduced to AUD 86.2 million.
However, when we exclude the large non-cash fair value gains on our interest rate swaps of AUD 18.2 million, normalized profit, normalized NPAT is reduced to AUD 86.2 million. It is important to highlight this significant non-cash fair value gain as it does unwind through the P&L in future years. Our wholesale funding program remains a key pillar of the sustained success of our business. This performed strongly in domestic and international capital markets and provided ample funding capacity. We issued close to $6 billion of prime and non-conforming RMBS in Australia and in New Zealand for FY 2022. We also increased the number of warehouses in both home loans and asset finance. Building for the future. While we delivered solid performance in FY 2022, we continued to lay the foundations for future growth.
We made substantial progress on overhauling our core banking systems, including rolling out a new originations platform. These upgrades are providing faster turnaround times and greatly improving the front and back-end experience for brokers and for customers. Our Asset Finance business is an important pillar in our product diversification strategy and Asset Finance. Building for the future. While we delivered solid performance in FY 2022, we continued to lay the foundations for future growth. We made substantial progress on overhauling our core banking systems, including rolling out a new originations platform. These upgrades are providing faster turnaround times and greatly improving the front and back-end experience for brokers and for customers. Our Asset Finance business is an important pillar in our product diversification strategy and enjoyed strong growth in FY 2022.
We're using our existing funding and distribution platforms to capitalize on what we believe is an underserved market, and customers are responding positively. Similar to our mortgage business, we commenced a project to replace our Asset Finance originations platform in FY 2022, focusing on automation, speed to decision, and customer experience. I'm pleased to say that we'll be rolling out the first of many products on the new platform this month. We expect to complete the entire rollout of all our Asset Finance products on the new platform by 30 June 2023. Specialist focus.
As I mentioned, key to our 2022 success was the performance of our specialist lending solutions. These products have helped many self-employed and SME borrowers who often find it difficult to secure home loans from banks. Resimac has a long history in originating, underwriting, and funding these products, and we are excited by the opportunity to establish a leading market position. Looking ahead, albeit in a significantly softer market, these self-employed and SME borrowers continue to present margin and origination opportunities. While competition for prime borrowers has intensified in an interest rates shift as interest rates shifts higher, Resimac will play to its strength and work with the broker channel to identify suitable borrowers that can benefit from our range of lending solutions. Finacle go live in Australia.
We are pleased to advise that as of Monday, the 14th of November, yesterday, we've successfully launched the final phase of our new IT applications renewal program. We've previously mentioned how we've completely refreshed and replaced our origination system. However, with this release, we are now running all of our core mortgage system on SaaS-based cloud platforms across Australia and New Zealand. Resimac, like many of our peers, has been on a homegrown core system for servicing mortgages. As we have grown over time, our customer, people and product needs have grown beyond what we can support internally. Moving to this new platform mitigates risk and sets us up for future growth.
Pleasingly, with this milestone, we are unlocking a stream of products and customer capabilities, the first installment of which is a new mobile-responsive online self-service platform, including enhanced payments and card management capabilities, which enable us to offer vastly improved customer experience. Our strategy of being customer-centered and digitally driven means that we'll continue to invest in this platform and continue to improve our offering to customers. Outlook. The mortgage lending market remains fiercely competitive in a softening market, compounded by interest rate and property price uncertainty, increased household expenses, and inflationary concerns. We expect these conditions and pressures to continue over the near term and, as a result, settlements to be lower in FY 2023. That said, we are confident in the ability of our portfolio to absorb these pressures with customers managing their higher repayments well to date. Unemployment is at historical lows.
Our portfolio has significant prepayment buffers, conservative credit assessments, and low LVRs. Strategy. Resimac Group continues to focus on being a customer-obsessed company that makes ownership, financial freedom, and business success more accessible to everyone. Our Resimac branded home loans businesses in Australia and New Zealand are designed to offer a broad spread of products with flexible lending solutions that cater for a wider audience, facilitated predominantly through mortgage brokers. This is our largest channel and the largest opportunity measured by AUM, and a market and a strategy we have been refining and executing on for many years. Resimac Asset Finance enables us to service what we believe is an underserved market and business success more accessible to everyone.
Our Resimac branded home loans businesses in Australia and New Zealand are designed to offer a broad spread of products with flexible lending solutions that cater for a wider audience, facilitated predominantly through mortgage brokers. This is our largest channel and the largest opportunity measured by AUM, and a market and a strategy we have been refining and executing on for many years. Resimac Asset Finance enables us to service what we believe is an underserved market. This is a logical and adjacent opportunity for the business to offer higher margin products to new and existing audiences, leveraging off our existing funding and distribution platforms. In summary, our strategy is to originate and manage a diversified pool of loan assets at sustainable margins by leveraging off the strengths of our brands across home loans and asset finance.
We will achieve this with a deep and unrelenting customer focus that enables us to deliver better and more achievable lending solutions. In closing, I want to acknowledge the hard work of our business partners, from our brokers to our bankers, who have performed incredibly in challenging times. Thank you. Our board of directors and executive leadership team continue to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions and have set a course I'm confident will help us weather some of the short-term macroeconomic challenges that protect our long-term opportunities and value. Their support has been invaluable. Our people across Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines are the engine room of Resimac, and they continue to impress me with their work ethic and commitment to our customers. A big thank you to all of you.
Finally, a special thank you to you, our shareholders, for your support and faith in the Resimac Group. We're truly grateful for your investment, and I look forward to answering any questions shortly. Thank you.
Thank you, Scott. I shall now move to the formal proceedings of the meeting. Resolution 1 relates to the remuneration report. The remuneration report can be found on page 28 of the company's annual report. Shareholders are required to consider, and if the remuneration report for the year ended June 30, 2022 be adopted. The vote on this resolution is advisory only and does not bind the directors or the company. Are there any questions from shareholders with respect to the remuneration report? The proxy votes received by the company in respect of this resolution are as follows, and displayed on the slide that should be visible next to the video presentation at the meeting. Sorry, I can't see it.
Yeah.
The results appear on the screen now for you.
Fine.
Thank you. I apologize because we have not finished the first item. Commence the first item of business, which I shall now attend to. The first item of business for this meeting is the receipt of the financial report for the year. This item is not required to be voted on. I now ask if there are any questions on the financial report.
Before I do this, I advise that we have not received any advanced questions for our auditor. However, we have received in advance the following question from a shareholder, Motus Pty Ltd . The question is, "Do you expect to maintain the current dividend?" I shall ask Jason Azzopardi, our CFO, to respond.
Yeah, thanks, Warren. Our FY 2022 dividend, as you said in your speech, increased to above 30%. Actually, when you exclude the fair value on derivative gains that we had, it was just under 40%. That's up from in the low 20s in FY 2021. We're happy that we've been able to increase returns for shareholders. In terms of the expectations going forward is we do expect to maintain the dividend at these levels.
Thank you. Do we have any other questions from shareholders with respect to the financial report? Okay. Thank you. I don't consider it necessary to repeat what I've stated in relation to the remuneration report, but the results are up on the screen now. I note that a number of proxies are not eligible to vote on this resolution. Let's proceed to resolution two, which is to consider, and if thought fit, pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution on the screen now, that Mrs.
Susan Hansen, who retires by rotation in accordance with Clause 13.4 of the company's constitution, is re-elected as a director in accordance with Clause 13.4.3 of the company's constitution. Susan was appointed to the board in October 2016. Susan's biography was included in the notice of meeting and in the annual report. The board supports the reelection of Susan. I shall now ask Susan to say a few words.
Thank you, Warren. Good morning, everyone. As Warren said, I have served on the board of the group since 2016. I'm chair of the audit committee and a member of the risk and compliance committee, remuneration committee, and the technology digital innovation committee. I'm also chair of our wholly-owned subsidiary in New Zealand. I'm a chartered accountant and worked in financial services for 40 years and have governance roles for 20 years. I always endeavor to act in the best interest of the company and with diligence, care and skill. I'm very grateful to my colleagues on the board for their support and candor, and the executive team are always responsive. I am sincere in saying that I'm proud to be part of Resimac journey and is privileged to serve on your board.
Thank you, Suz. Are there any questions on the resolution?
No questions.
No questions. The proxy votes received by the company representing 71.2% of securities on issue in respect of this resolution are as
The executive team are always responsive. I am sincere in saying that I'm proud to be part of Resimac journey and is privileged to serve on your board.
Thank you, Suz. Are there any questions on the resolution?
No questions.
No questions. The proxy votes received by the company representing 71.2% of securities on issue in respect of this resolution are as follows and displayed on the slide. Resolution three is to consider, and if thought fit, pass the following resolution as an ordinary resolution that Wayne Spanner, who retires by rotation in accordance with clause 13.4 of the company's constitution, is re-elected as a director of the company's constitution. Wayne was appointed to the board in February 2020. Wayne's biography was included in the notice of meeting and in the annual report. The board supports the re-election of Wayne. I shall now ask Wayne to say a few words.
Thank you very much, Warren. I'm assuming you can all hear me.
Appointed to the board in February 2020. Wayne's biography was included in the notice of meeting and in the annual report. The board supports the re-election of Wayne. I shall now ask Wayne to say a few words.
Thank you very much, Warren. I'm assuming you can all hear me. Thanks for the opportunity, and good morning to everybody. It's certainly been a privilege and a pleasure to participate on this board, and I've thoroughly appreciated the opportunity over the last three years. I've enjoyed working with my fellow directors and deeply value their experience, insights, and I think we complement each other, very, very well. I'm certainly proud of our achievements.
I'm certainly proud of our achievements that you and Scott have talked about earlier. As some of you know, I come from a legal and business background, having operated in a legal and regulatory environment for over 30 years in a litigation practice. Nine of those as a managing partner and the CEO of the Australian law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright. I've worked, studied, and lived across many countries, South Africa, United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, and worked in Asia as well. I've been part of and led the Australian arm of significant legal transformation in the legal industry, taking a domestic law firm and making it international with over seven mergers around the world to create a $2 billion law firm.
Following my retirement as a managing partner in Australia, I continued in an executive role with Norton Rose Fulbright, now based in New York, leading the firm's global strategy, people, innovation, responsible business, ESG, compliance functions, including a few others. It's in that context that I think I provide significant capability around the strategy, business transformation, including the technology transformation, risk compliance, audit, employee benefits and operations in brand and marketing. Also come with a legal background in that context. I sit on this board, but also the audit committee, risk and compliance committees, and I chair the remuneration committee. I'm particularly proud and delighted that one of the first things on the remuneration committee I was able to do was bring in new capability onto our board by bringing Caroline Waldron in to join the board as well, and also our ongoing review of board effectiveness.
Certainly living and working across the United States and Australia provides great insight into the key issues affecting us in the domestic market in Australia, the challenges and the opportunities that we face that both Scott and Warren mentioned. I'm excited about the opportunities at Resimac, the achievements thus far, and certainly look forward to continuing to work with the board for another term. Thanks, Warren.
Thank you, Wayne. Are there any questions on this resolution?
No questions.
No questions. The proxy votes received by the company representing 71.2% of securities on issue in respect of this resolution are as follows and displayed on the screen. We now proceed to the poll. Computershare is our share registry provider, represented today by Mr. Paul Latinski as Returning Officer. Voting at today's meeting will be conducted via an online platform. For those entitled to vote at today's meeting, if you have not already done so, please log in to the online voting portal as provided in the notice of meeting and online voting guide and vote as the poll will be closing soon. If you are eligible to vote at this meeting, a new polling icon will appear. Selecting this icon will bring up a list of resolutions and present you with voting options. To cast your vote, simply select one of the options.
There is no need to hit or submit an enter button as the vote is automatically recorded. You have the ability to cast and change your vote on all resolutions up until the time I declare voting closed. Following confirmation by computershare, final results will be announced to the ASX later today. Please note that I shall be voting undirected proxies that I hold as chairman in favor of all resolutions. I shall now allow some time for voting.
How many copies do we print?
I'm not sure. Jimmy, are you asking? Can you take that?
Good. We'll be using cheaper paper. It's good.
Recycled paper as well.
It's good.
I now declare the poll closed. As noted, the results of today's meeting, once finalized, will be announced to the ASX. However, I can advise that at this time, based on the proxies received and the votes on the floor this morning, that I believe all resolutions laid down today will be carried. Thank you for your attendance today. I now declare the meeting closed at 10:00 A.M.