Good morning, and welcome to Westpac's first quarter 2022 conference call. My name is Andrew Bowden, and I'm Head of Westpac's Investor Relations. Joining me are our CEO, Peter King, and our CFO, Michael Rowland. We have lodged four documents with the ASX this morning.
A release explaining the results for the first quarter 2022, a slide pack with additional detail on the result, along with some information on asset quality and capital, our normal Pillar 3 report for the December quarter, and an announcement on changes to our organizational structure. If you haven't already, I'd encourage you to have copies of these releases handy. They're obviously lodged with Exchange, and they're also available on our website. I'll now hand over to Peter and Michael to make some opening remarks, and then we'll invite some questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Andrew, and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Conditions have certainly remained fluid since our full year results last November. Given the buyback and COVID developments over the summer, we decided to hold a call and provide some detail on our performance and the key trends we're seeing. Importantly, we don't expect to continue quarterly earnings calls going forward.
If I turn to the first quarter, I'm pleased with the progress we're making on our strategic and transformation agendas. In particular, our core program has moved from the design phase to the implementation phase, and that will drive further improvement in our risk management. The exit of non-core businesses is going to plan, and we're now focused on super and platforms as the next businesses. We're also making progress on our cost reset.
It's been a solid start to the year with our first quarter highlights, including cash earnings up 74% or excluding notable items, cash earnings rose 1%. The balance sheet is strong, with capital well above APRA's benchmark, funding and liquidity in good shape, while asset quality again improved. In fact, business stress is now lower than where it was at the start of COVID.
We also grew our loan portfolios in priority areas of mortgages and business in Australia and New Zealand, and made good progress on costs, which were down 7% this quarter. While we started well, particularly in treasury, margins remained under pressure from low interest rates, competition, continued flow of mortgages into fixed rates, and the need to significantly lift liquid assets. Just as a reminder, there is a major reshape of the bank's balance sheet going on.
The committed liquidity facility runs down to zero this year, and we responded by increasing liquid assets by AUD 29 billion this quarter. Given these NIM trends, delivering our cost reset is critical. Today, we also announced the next phase of organizational changes that build on our line of business model and assist in delivering head office restructuring.
As a reminder, first implemented in 2020, our line of business operating model has created businesses responsible for our major customer offerings, such as mortgages, and the model is intended to establish end-to-end accountability, help speed up decision-making, and shift decision-making closer to the customer. Today's changes take this model a step further by moving more support functions such as finance and IT closer to the business and delivers a leaner and more focused head office.
As part of the change, we're also combining our risk, financial crime, and compliance activities back under the Chief Risk Officer. You're seeing that we've appointed Ryan Zanin as the group's Chief Risk Officer. Ryan's a seasoned risk executive, beginning his career in Canada before taking on larger risk roles in GE, Wells Fargo, and most recently at Fannie Mae. Now, David Stephen and Les Vance, who lead our risk and financial crime and compliance functions now, will be leaving the bank during the course of this year.
Among other changes, Scott Collary will take on the role of Group Executive Customer Services and Technology, and Scott will look after all those service activities linked to customers. Carolyn McCann takes on the role of Group Executive Corporate Services, principally all our corporate activities such as property, corporate affairs, along with shared services for HR and finance. With those comments, I'll hand to Michael to touch on the quarter.
Thanks, Peter, and good morning. This quarter, core earnings were AUD 1.58 billion, well up on the quarterly average of the last half. Excluding notable items, cash earnings were up 1% from lower costs and a stronger treasury and markets performance. These gains enabled us to absorb the loss of earnings from the sale of our general insurance and LMI businesses, along with a turnaround in impairment charges.
We grew mortgages and business lending by AUD 5 billion with a strong contribution from institutional banking. New Zealand also grew, but the appreciation of the Australian dollar reduced this impact on the group's results. You may also recall that we completed the sale of our wholesale dealer book in December, and that reduced business lending by around AUD 1 billion.
We are pleased with the growth in mortgages in the owner-occupied segment following improvements we have made in operational and credit processes. Margins were down 8 basis points over the quarter, of which 6 basis points were due to the increase in liquid assets. We've largely completed the increase in holdings of high-quality liquid assets for the rundown of the CLF, with only a small additional impact expected in the second quarter. The margin, excluding treasury and markets, was 167 basis points for December, down around 13 basis points from the September 2021 margin.
Excluding liquids, the margin decline was due to the continuing industry and dynamic of low interest rates, steepening wholesale yield curves, customer demand for lower margin fixed rate lending, and stiff competition. These pressures are expected to continue over 2022. Cost reduction was a feature of the result as we began to deliver on the plans we set out last year. Headcount, a combination of staff and contractors, declined by over 1,100 in the quarter.
Most of the savings were from the simplification of our functions, projects, reductions from selling businesses, and automation. We have more gains to come from completing our fixed priority and from the organizational changes announced today. Importantly, we've improved efficiency while investing in our franchise. We've increased banker numbers without pulling back on our program to materially lift our risk management capability.
Credit quality continues to be in good shape, and while some customers are having difficulty, the numbers are small. Stressed assets are now back to pre-COVID levels, and delinquencies in both mortgages and unsecured credit have continued to decline. In usual circumstances, these trends would have led to a credit impairment benefit. We felt, given current uncertainties, it was prudent to use our judgment to increase overlays and put more weight to the downside economic scenario.
These judgments added AUD 551 million to provisions, more than offsetting underlying declines. Total provisions were still AUD 241 million lower, but that was entirely due to the write-off of almost AUD 300 million in impaired assets. The CET1 ratio was a strong 12.2%, and even after the expected impact of the buyback, our CET1 ratio will be comfortably above 11%.
Funding and liquidity have also been strong. The customer deposit to loan ratio is now up over 83%, while our liquidity ratios are well above minimums and buffers. While we've much to do in the year ahead, we've made a solid start and have put in place a number of measures to continue that trend, particularly on costs. With that, let me hand back to Andrew for questions.
Thanks, Michael. Look, just a reminder, this is a quarter, so we're not gonna provide significant detail that we would at the half. We wanna keep this short. I'm just gonna ask if each of the analysts I ask questions from, just keep it to one question, please. Can I take my first question from Jarrod Martin?
Morning, Andrew. Can you hear me?
Yep.
Morning, Peter. Morning, Michael. Look, acknowledge that you don't wanna provide further detail, but I think I wanna demand some. If we go to slide five, the key number on slide five is the 10 basis points of margin decline for loans, deposits, and capital. Michael, in your opening comments, you said that the pressures are likely to continue throughout FY 2022.
Does that mean that rate of 10 basis points per quarter decline from a product perspective is going to continue each quarter throughout FY 2022? Then any further color on the components of that decline between the switching, the mortgage front, the back book competition and deposits is gonna be greatly appreciated.
Well, Jarrod, I might just kick off quickly. We've also given you the month's exit margin there of 4 basis points below the 171 for the quarter. Broadly, that four is half liquidity impact and half business impact. There is a big rebasing of the margin happening because of this liquidity build for us and the industry as the CLF comes down. Really the big driver is mortgages and all the growth that we had was in the fixed portfolio again, which is lower spread and also being impacted by the fact that the swap rates are moving up pretty quickly as the yield curve moves.
What we're actually seeing in flow is a moderation in the proportion going into fixed rates. It averaged around mid 40% in the first quarter of this year compared to 53% last half. Most recently, it's in the mid 30s, to give you a sense. As fixed rates have moved up, they're up about probably 70-100 basis points in the two- and three-year terms. We are seeing customers not choosing fixed rates as much as what they were. It's really in that fixed rate piece. We have had continued competition in variable, but a lot of the growth coming through in the fixed book.
That gives you a bit of a sense, I think, of the main driver and the liquidity there. Then treasury, as I said, had a very happy, you know, very good quarter. They managed the movements in the markets very well and added value in the quarter.
Thank you.
Can I take a question from Brendan Sproules, please?
Good morning, gents. Look, I just got a question on, just a follow-on question from what you're just talking about, the fixed rate. I mean, as we go through for the next three quarters, how do you expect that to evolve? Obviously, you've repriced fixed rates, you've got less demand. You know, the yield curve moves are probably not gonna be as violent as we saw in the first quarter. Expect as we get through to the second half of the year that some of those fixed rate pressures will moderate?
Well, I think, as I said, in the flow, we're already starting to see the flow moderate, based on what's happened historically. Brendan, it's sort of up to you to really answer that question. I've gotta guess or forecast where fixed rates are gonna go in the future. That's probably best left to you folk about that because I can't comment on future price moves. I think the key point I'd just say is we have seen a move back to variable in a proportion sense of flow. Thank you.
Okay, take a question from Victor German, please.
Thank you, Andrew. I was hoping to also ask a question on margins. 9 basis point improvement in markets income in treasury income. How do you think we should look at that? Is that just a really strong quarter, or is it just a reflection of the previous quarter being particularly weak and this is more sustainable level? Where do you think sort of that treasury component should be going forward? If I could just sort of try my luck, a lot of focus these days on potentially high interest rates. Could you maybe just remind us what's your sensitivity to 25 basis point interest rate increase? Just purely the rate component. Thank you.
I'll touch on the first question. Treasury markets, as we said at the full year, we're disappointed with our full-year treasury performance, and the Institutional Bank has done a lot to rebuild that team, and they had a good quarter. We're very happy with the turnaround in that business. We see that as a sustainable trend going forward.
Treasury also had a really good quarter on the back of volatility in the markets on some funding we did. While that was an excellent quarter, we wouldn't necessarily expect that to be continued, but certainly some of that will continue through the rest of the year. Fundamentally, the treasury result was a very pleasing uptick from last half.
I'll just add on that, Victor. The fact that the bank reentered wholesale funding markets meant the treasury was getting the liability bills positions coming in again. That was also a source of ability to risk manage. That's something that you know is back in the mix, if you like. They did that well. Just on the interest rate sensitivity, I haven't got it handy, but it'll go down because of the big shift in the variable rate book, the mortgage book between variable and fixed in the short term, and then probably expand out if we see normal movements back to variable rates.
We can give you that detail at the half.
Okay, I'll take a question from Brian Johnson, please.
Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. Peter, as a mere stockbroking analyst, I don't get access to the chairs like a lot of the institutions, but management at Westpac are very keen to talk about the AUD 8 billion cost target, which is great, and you've made certainly better than expected progress during the quarter. Your chair seems to be talking about a cost-to-income ratio target. The revenues in this result, the NIM, looks bad. Pete, can you just reconcile this for us? Is there a cost-to-income ratio target or a cost target? Can you just marry the two together, please?
Yeah, no, we've got a cost target, Brian. AUD 8 billion. I think that's pretty clear in what the chairman's letter says, in the annual report and consistent with my letter. You're right, the cost-to-income ratio will be pushed around by the revenue of the bank, and low interest rates and the competition in the market and the move to fixed has seen a change in margins. As I said up front, we've got a big reshaping of the bank's balance sheet going on with us buying a significant amount of liquid assets to unwind the CLF. You know, the CLF was AUD 37 billion last year. If everything stayed the same, we'd be buying AUD 37 billion, and we did AUD 29 billion this quarter, plus a bit last quarter.
That's a rebasing of margins 'cause you've got a lot of lower yielding assets on your balance sheet. We have a cost target, Brian.
Thank you.
Take a question from Richard Wiles, please.
Good morning. I just wanted to ask a little bit more about the costs. In the waterfall chart, you've got the AUD 61 million decline in the fixed costs, which you've said are non-recurring. That's a pretty small move in the quarter, given that those fixed costs were over AUD 1 billion in 2021. You've said they'll be zero by 2024. How much do you think those fixed costs should come down this year?
Richard, as we indicated that the fixed program is a three-year program, and we expect to continue to invest in 2022 a similar amount to 2021. That's a three-year position. We don't expect that to change too much over 2022 is a quick answer to your question.
You've still got close to AUD 1 billion of non-recurring fixed costs expected.
As I said.
To be in the total cost base this year.
We're committed to completing our fixed agenda, and that means we'll continue to reinvest what we need to invest. As we indicated at the full year, a lot of the focus initially is on our BAU cost base, which we outlined, and that's where you'll see most of the reduction in the quarter. Okay, thank you.
Take question from Andrew Triggs, please.
Thanks, Andrew. Morning, everyone. Just a question to follow up on that expense waterfall chart. The AUD 120 million reduction in ongoing costs and investments, just interested how much of that is investment spend. i.e., what was investment spend annualizing for the first quarter? Will it rise into the second half? What overall investment spend to expect for the full year?
The quick answer is that most of it is ongoing BAU cost. There's a little bit of investment spend, which is a function of seasonality. I wouldn't extrapolate that. Our investment profile will be similar this year to the way it was in 2021.
Thank you.
I'll take a question from Jonathan Mott, please.
Yeah. Hi, I've got a question about the lending volumes. If we look at the credit stats, we're seeing the housing lending slow pretty quickly compared to where you were, both absolute and relative to the system over this quarter. It's also been a period where you've been leading the market up with your fixed rate pricing. A bit of feedback we're also getting from the brokers is that their flow into fixed rate doesn't appear to have slowed as fast as the numbers that you've indicated just before. Do you think part of this pullback in your lending volume is a reflection of being less competitive on fixed rate pricing?
Jonathan, I think I've got the question. You just cut in and out. You know, certainly when you move fixed rates, and there's a couple of times where we have moved this half, then brokers look for better rates, and we haven't been the sharpest in fixed rates across the market in this upward phase of fixed rates. So that probably has impacted a little bit of flow. I think we're doing, as Michael said, we're doing well in owner-occupied and not as well in investor. That's an area that we think we've got improvement. A lot of the benefits of our investment in processes have gone into the consumer segment, where we're doing well, and there's a bit more to do in business.
If we think of it this way, then looking at an impact of competition, you've seen 10 basis points or almost 5% of your margin disappear in the quarter. Yet the annual growth of your balance sheet, excluding liquids, underlying lending growth is 3% or 4%. The hit to your margin in the quarter is offset a year of lending growth. Is that a way we should think about that?
Yeah, they've been pretty big moves. I mean, the fixed rate spread compared to the variable rate spread is materially different, significantly different. With the switch, we've got both existing customers switching into fixed and a lot of the new flow coming in into fixed, it has had a big impact on revenue. You know, you might argue that's cyclical. Normally, a lot of this will roll back into variable when people roll off, but that'll depend on the interest rate relativity at that point in the future.
Thank you.
Take question from Azib Khan, please.
Thanks, Andrew. Peter, in the last half, we saw your investor home lending, interest-only home lending, and business lending portfolios growing below system, and that was weighing on your margin. Are these portfolios continuing to grow below system? If so, when should we expect them to return to growing in line with system?
Just one point on the quarter, as Michael said, we had the sale of auto finance go through. That was AUD 1 billion out in December. You just need to factor that in to your thinking when you're looking at the results. We're seeing very good growth in the institutional bank. There's been a lot of M&A activity, and Anthony and the team have done a good job to help customers with that activity. The commercial bank, the top end of the business bank, there's been good demand. SME is the area I think where we can do better, and that's what we highlighted. In aggregate, if you adjust for the auto finance transaction, we're around market.
A lot of the growth has actually been at the top end in WIB and in commercial.
Investor home lending and interest-only home lending, Peter, how are they growing relative to system?
It's investor, it would be below. Owner-occupied, we're pretty good. Investor would be below. Interest-only has been contracting again. We're probably been in a different cycle to the other banks. It's probably done the heavy lifting on interest-only now.
Thank you.
Okay, take question from Ed Henning, please.
Thank you for taking my question. Your capital pro forma is now 11.65. APRA's now set its guidelines. You called out you're above 11%. First, is that what you're targeting at the moment, or what is your target for capital? Thinking about the buyback, if you do have to do some of the AUD 3.5 billion on market, is there scope to increase that, please?
Michael here. Yeah, obviously we're pleased with our capital position. It's quite strong. Our organic capital generation is good. You're right. We just need to see the outcome of the buyback, which I encourage everyone to read the booklet and participate. We will be above where we expect to. We are working through just where the APRA's final capital rules will end up, and we'll provide more detail on that at the half year.
Ed, we're committed to the 3.5. The 3.5 is what we announced. That's the plan. Any future decision we'll consider at that time.
Yeah, we'll assess how it plays through at the half year, you know.
Okay. You're gonna come out with a capital target at the half year once you continue to go through APRA's guidelines?
Yeah. We did say, we said we'd give you an update at the half year, and we'll come up with our operating range at that time.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay. I'm gonna take a couple more questions from the analyst, but I'd just invite journos if they would like to press star one, please. Thanks. I'll take a question from Nathan Zaia, please.
Hi. Can I just one more question on the mortgage volumes? You were lagging the market for some time and did seem to turn that around, probably driven by price. Can you just confirm it didn't result in any deterioration in your turnaround times and approval times as you sort of did get that rush in application volumes?
Oh, Nathan, you know, certainly in the middle of last year and during parts that were impacted by COVID, we did have longer times. They've come back in now, and particularly for simpler deals, they can be done fairly quickly. We're probably at a point now where demand in the market's come off a little bit, and service levels are pretty solid.
You'd say you were competitive on service, so happy with where you're at?
Well, certainly our improvements have gone into the first party, so we're feeling good about that, and they're being rolled out to the third party right now. The third party will get the benefit of that over the course of this, our first half.
Okay. Thanks.
Can I take a question from Andrew Lyons, please?
Yeah. Thanks and good morning, Andrew. Peter, you've noted that you've increased your overlays reflecting the current Omicron COVID outbreak. I was just wondering if you could make some comments on how your front line is seeing the impact of this of this outbreak on activity levels and how you see the current outbreak impacting the remainder of the year from a volume perspective across mortgages, business banking, and institutional.
Yeah. I think, for the bank, what we certainly saw, like we've seen in the broader stats for Australia, that the two weeks after Christmas and New Year's when we had a lot of people reporting or are either isolating or had COVID. We had a peak period around there. It did see about 15% of branches were impacted, in many cases closed, and it's down around 6%. It's been the operational aspects that have been in the branches that have been most challenged. I think the other parts of the bank have done pretty well. In terms of activity, we've seen credit card activity come back in the last bit of January. That's back up.
It's probably a bit early to tell on mortgages 'cause you have that seasonal impact of everyone not doing a lot over Christmas. Again, then if I look at hardship calls, actually nowhere near what we feared. They've been much lower. Now, that means there are people that are impacted, but in the scale of the bank, you can see in all the big credit metrics, whether it's business stressed, as I said there, the business stressed ratio is now down below where we were before COVID. The mortgage stress mortgage 90-day rate improved. Unsecured credit in Australia again is down below where we started in COVID. The macro measures are pretty good, but you know, we still do have customers that are impacted.
You know, CBDs still having a pretty nearly like deserts when you walk around them at the moment.
Thank you.
Can I take a question from Peter Ryan from ABC, please?
Yeah. Oh, good day, Peter. I just wanted to get a bit of color at just about you know the situation with competition in mortgages. I know you don't comment on interest rates, but what are you seeing in terms of people looking at I guess commentary from the Reserve Bank about the potential for rising interest rates and that you know move into the certainty of fixed for a period and what that actually means for margins and how you manage that?
Peter, I think we've touched on that. Mortgages are very competitive and you know one of the biggest shifts actually has been the proportion of fixed rate in our mortgage book has moved from you know the 15%-20% mark up to 40%. We've had a mature reshaping of the mortgage book. The low point in fixed rates was really middle of last year and they've moved up from that point. Just on interest rates, I just I'm not going to jump into the commentary on when the cash rate will move, but we're seeing fixed rates have moved up consistently over the last six months.
Really, I think if the Reserve Bank decides that to lift interest rates, then that means the economy is gonna be doing well because the unemployment's down, there's wages growth, and a bit of inflation. That is I think the bigger picture if I step back and think about the debate. You know, the risk is that it overshoots, but that risk, you know, is there. I think from what the Reserve Bank governor said yesterday, he's watching that closely, but that's probably the risk that it overshoots. You know, a rise in interest rates means a better economy, and we've assessed mortgages with buffers and floors on the expectation that rates won't stay this low forever.
Okay. Thanks, Peter.
I'll take a question from Ayesha de Kretser, please, from the AFR.
Oh, hi, Peter. You mentioned provisioning and talked a bit about how you're not seeing bad credit yet. Can you just let us know how pessimistic are you or in what you've added there compared to what you were in 2020? Is it worse or better in terms of the number?
The overall provisioning level is down on 2020. There is actually a slide in the discussion pack that shows that. In that sense, we've got a more optimistic outlook is probably the way to answer that question. It's still uncertain. You know, we're not through this COVID outbreak. It's had twists and turns that we haven't foreseen. We've just remained prudent, and the outcome's been our sort of coverage of the loan balances for collective provisions is relatively unchanged, is what the outcome is. Certainly more positive than what we were in 2020.
Thank you.
A question from Clancy Yeates, please.
Oh, hi, Peter. You said again today that you wanted to reduce the size of head office functions by 20% and 1100 jobs had already gone in the last quarter. I know you've spoken about this before, but can you say how many jobs do you expect in total will be affected by that 20% reduction?
Well, Clancy, in terms of the reductions, I think we've said 1,100 in the quarter. You know, probably similar. I'll just remind you, this is a three-year plan with three big focus areas. The first is to resolve our risk management issues, and that'll drive less notable items. The second is the exit of the non-core businesses. The third is also reducing our BAU cost base. As an example, because COVID hasn't had as big an impact on our loan portfolio, we haven't needed as many people in our hardship teams. That's part of it. The initial focus has been on contractors into the bank, and that was 900 of the 1,100 reduction in headcount this period.
We're making progress. It's been a good quarter, but it's a three-year plan.
Okay.
I'll take a question from James Eyers, please.
Oh, hi there, Peter. This is just a follow-up to your answer to Peter Ryan's question when you were just talking about the governor's comments at the RBA yesterday. Look, you know, it's generally understood, I suppose, that the ultra-low rate, you know, ultra-low cash rate has been a headwind for a decent period of time now. Just I wondered, like, can you just sort of talk a little bit about the mechanics of how the rise in cash rate when it does occur sort of flows through? You answered Victor's question just by talking about customers switching from fixed to variable. I mean, is that the main thing we need to look at? Are there any other mechanics that flow through as the cash rate rises?
Margins have lots and lots of moving bits. The most direct impact of the cash rate really is the start of the yield curve, and we have many points of exposure across the yield curve, but where it most directly impacts is how we invest our capital, which is every, you know, at the three-year swap point. That's already moved as an example. What was a headwind for us in terms of lower returns on capital will become a tailwind. That's one that feeds directly through. Then you have just the spread between loans and deposits, the spread between loans and wholesale costs. The mix between deposits and wholesales, another driver, and then competition in lending.
It's a hard one to say that the rate has a direct impact on the margin in this way because there are many different factors. We've got to manage all of them as if the market's right and cash rate goes up, then the yield curve changes, and we've just got to manage all those points.
Okay. I might take a question from Joyce Moullakis, please.
Oh, yes. Hi, Peter. Thanks for taking the question. I just had a query around the changes to the risk function. Obviously, it wasn't long ago that you were making financial crime a separate report into the CEO with Les Vance, and now you're sort of unwinding a lot of those changes. Obviously, you've got the three phases in your transformation plan, but you're obviously sufficiently comfortable with the risk function and the changes that have been implemented to make the announcements you have today. Can you talk me through it, please?
Yeah. Joyce, we're moving into what I would describe as the second phase of our core program and in fact our financial crime program. A lot of effort's gone into both, but there's still more work to do. The second phase is about implementation, particularly in our line divisions. A lot of the improvements in policies, frameworks, a lot of the response to what the issues were raised in AUSTRAC, have been dealt with, but that's what I would describe as phase one. Phase two, we've got to pull it all together in our operating businesses. The teams have done a good job, but it's much more about phase two. The first-line team's picking up the risk and managing it. Don't read these changes as we're done.
In fact, it's the other way. It's just that I wanna bring the risk classes back together, 'cause when you're implementing in a division, you need to look at all things consistently and at the same time, so you get your execution right.
Okay, thank you.
We're gonna take two more questions. Next one from Nabila Ahmed.
Peter, thanks for taking my question. You spoke about CBDs being like deserts. I was just wondering if you could please talk about your plans for bringing staff back to the office and how Omicron is affecting that. Separately, if I may, what effects are you seeing from the macroprudential measures to cool the housing market, and do you expect further moves along those lines?
I think, you know, CBDs. I should say, our approach is gonna be a hybrid approach. We expect people will spend time in the corporate buildings but also working flexibly from where they choose to work. That's where we've landed on our approach for working at Westpac. We are targeting the first of March for more people to come back into our head offices. I'm also aware that, you know, people are managing the risk of COVID in different ways, so that will be a gradual process, I think, over time. We're just gonna have to find ways, I think, to work to have more activity in the central business districts to bring people back.
You know, if you do go for a walk around, there's not a lot of people at the moment around. On macroprudential, I think I'd describe it more as the market as I'm looking at it looks to be slowing a little bit. If we looked at the latest housing price data, certainly the you know, the bigger states of New South Wales and Victoria have seen moderation in price growth. Queensland and South Australia are still going pretty strong, interestingly. I think the market's actually starting to slow down a little bit. I'm sure the regulator will look at all aspects. They tend to focus on higher risk lending such as higher DTI lending. We'll wait and see.
I think it all depends on what happens in the market.
Okay, I'll take the last question from Richard Wiles, please.
Good morning. I was just wondering, in terms of the margin situation, how much of the crunch would be attributable to Westpac, as opposed to industry factors? Could you put it in some kind of overall historical perspective as well? How does this current crunch compare to previous crunches?
Well, I think for Westpac, our business portfolio is the most skewed to mortgages. Our portfolio mix means that we're probably more impacted when the mortgage spreads come in. That's one of the biggest things. Have been the biggest driver of the change, Richard. We chose to grow in the last couple of years at the point when competition's really increasing. We thought that was the right decision because we needed to get the franchise moving again. It's a bit of our portfolio mix, our decision to get growing again, and then some of the industry dynamics and customer dynamics about fixed versus variable.
That's why we're also very focused on the cost reset, because we could see that margins were gonna come under pressure with competition, and therefore, the cost reset was our response.
Do you have some kind of historical perspective for?
Well, I mean, interest rates have never been lower. You know, that's one of the challenges. We've never had the level of support in terms of the cash rate, the liquidity provision that we've seen recently. I can't sort of point you to a point in history because it's been unique this last couple of years.
Okay.
All right. Well, thank you all. Really appreciate your time this morning, and good morning. We've got a few more questions to answer. We'll follow those up separately. Thank you.