Welcome, everybody, to the Heartland financial year 2023 results. Ko Jeff Greenslade, ahau te kaiwhakahaere o Heartland. I'm Jeff Greenslade, the Chief Executive of Heartland Group Holdings Limited. I'm joined by the Deputy Group CEO, Chris Flood, the Group CFO Andrew Dixson and the CEO of the Heartland Bank, Leanne Lazarus. Before I turn to the results, just one piece of accounting housekeeping. As we have done in the past, we are reporting both in terms of accounting reported standards and underlying. That is important just to give everybody a sense of how the business is performing once it's normalized for technical non-cash items, such as fair value adjustments from investments or the more complex issue of derecognition of hedging, which Andrew Dixson will be more than happy to take us through in a moment.
I'm going to speak briefly to the financial highlights, talk about the key strategic matters that are occupying us and then I will hand over to Andrew, who will go through the accounts and then Leanne, who will take us through the New Zealand operations and then Chris Flood will pick up the Australian operations and then we'll come back to me to close. So starting with the financial highlights, we grew to just under NZD 6.8 billion during the course of the year. That's just over 10%. And that drove NPAT in normalized terms of NZD 110.2 million, or 14.6% up from the previous period and just under NZD 96 million, just under 1% above the previous period for reported NPAT. NIM contracted during the period.
The usual suspects were to blame. The mix of the book, greater growth coming from reverse mortgages as a proportion of the book, delayed in passing on the increases in deposits. But also, there is a cohort of asset finance in motor loans, which where we increased market share and there were some margin sacrifice taken in terms of doing that and they're working their way through the system. As you can see in the normalized margin, the reduction from the first half is only two basis points, as that book is working its way through the system and being refinanced at higher rates. The cost-to-income ratio and underlying sense was down slightly at 42%.
It was 45% in a reported perspective and that really reflects the fair value adjustments going through that line. So a very pleasing result for cost-to-income ratio. Impairments were up seven basis points to 36 basis points. That's mainly coming through in the motor book, where we've seen an increase in arrears. The motor book is very correlated to unemployment and while unemployment has remained very low and stable, we nonetheless thought it prudent to increase our provisions going forward. They are provisions, not expenses, I hasten to add. ROE and EPS were down during the year and that really reflected the fact that we raised capital, about NZD 200 million last year.
O bviously, at the moment, we are sitting on more capital, more shares than we've had yet had time to utilize in terms of earnings, so that will right itself and we'll get the ROEs moving back up into those 12% and beyond levels. Finally, the board was pleased to declare a NZD 0.06 per share dividend, which brings the full year to NZD 0.115. Heading out for the strategic update, I just wanna cover off 3 things, just some commentary on business-as- usual performance before Chris and Leanne give you more detail. Secondly, talk about our efficiency focus as measured by our cost-to-income ratio and then finally, Australia.
T he pleasing aspect of the growth that we experienced of just above 10% was that it occurred during a time of subdued growth, a property market that was going through a correction and the fact that we, unlike the other banks in the industry, did not benefit from the funding for lending programs, so we did not have the benefit of that. And also, during that period, we exited NZD 90 million of non-core loans. So that growth that we achieved is very impressive and what sets us apart is where it came from, the core products that have been generating that growth. The reverse mortgage books in Australia and New Zealand, they both grew by more than 20%.
The motor book, which grew by 13.5%, despite the fact that the market declined by around 6% and our asset finance business, which grew by 8%, pricing into probably a more competitive market than the others, but a reflection of the investment and infrastructure we're seeing in New Zealand and also the dependency on trucking. So very well-placed in terms of business-as-usual growth and we expect that to continue. Turning now to the next area, which frictionless service at the lowest cost and what this really means is efficiency and we measure efficiency through our cost-to-income ratio. The cost-to-income ratio really is, what does it cost us to produce a dollar?
C urrently, we are spending 42 cents to generate one dollar of earnings and that is about the same as the best of the major Australian banks. So what that says is that we have used technology to replace scale, so we're performing as if we had the same scale as, as those major banks. Normally, small banks of our size would have a cost-to-income ratio of anything from 60-80 cents. So how have we managed to do that? And that's through, I guess, being an early adopter of digitalization at the front end. So we managed to reduce our distribution networks. We don't have branches. We're restricting and are restricting telephony and we are increasingly using platforms.
We're now moving all the way through the service value chain to digitalize and automate, in order to progress our move towards a lower cost-to-income ratio. That is going to be primarily through the mobile phone. Our ambition is for our customers all to have a mobile phone, to do everything they need to do on a mobile phone, whether it is to get an account balance, or as Leanne will talk about, to change the profile of their loans. Rather than going through the indignity of having to apply for flexibility, we believe customers should have a self-help when it comes to changing the nature of their lending. And also, we wish to move towards zero inbound calls, again, something that Leanne will talk to you about in a moment.
We believe that if customers need to ring us, we have failed. Everything that they need to know, everything that they need to do should be available on a mobile phone. And there are some pleasing numbers in this presentation that demonstrate the uptake and utilization of the mobile phone. But one in particular stands out for me and that is that now 54% of our customers who are visiting our reverse mortgage websites are doing so on a smartphone. And that says volumes about the trend and the myths about demographic resistance to technology. So, for us, who have depositors in that 60+ age group and clearly our reverse mortgage customers, by definition, are all in that 65 and beyond age group.
The fact that we're seeing such take-up of smartphone usage is quite impressive and omens well for the future. So whilst we're at 42, we're very pleased with that approach. We are not going to stop there. It's not parity that we are seeking with major banks. We want to create a meaningful distance between us and other banks in terms of the cost-to-income ratio. Again, we want to set ourselves apart, as we have done with our products, with our focus on efficiency. I don't think I'm aware of any other bank in Australasia that is setting the cost-to-income ratio as being one of their key drivers to incentivize management. So we're looking at ways to get ourselves to 35% and again, Leanne will talk about that in more detail about how we're going to do that.
Our matapono or values, among them, is Mahi Toa and Mahi Tipu, which is to be bold and to evolve and adapt and that is certainly something we intend to do as we move towards that target of 35% cost-to-income ratio. Turning now to Australia, very pleasing results. We're now at 38% market share in Australia. We are the leader in that market. We are the leaders in livestock. Obviously, didn't have a great year in terms of climatic conditions or the pricing cycle. But during the course of the year, we greatly expanded our footprint in Australia, increased the number of customers and and animals that we are funding and Chris Flood will talk about that a bit more in a moment.
Clearly, the prime focus is on obtaining our bank license in Australia and that's what's occupied a lot of my time. We are making progress. Obtaining a bank license is necessarily a methodical and thorough process and the process we're going through is no exception. To give you an idea, the fastest application for a startup bank, we are not a startup bank, we're different. We've got a head start with what we're doing, but nonetheless, it's just illustrative to understand that Judo Bank broke the world record of getting a license within 18 months. We started this process in February. We won't take as long as that because we aren't a startup bank. We're buying into an existing bank with a track record.
We are changing the business plan, but these things take time and, I'm sorry, I can't give you a, an expected completion date other than it is, top of my list of things to do. Before I hand over to Andrew, I just want to touch on sustainability. We are shifting a lot more emphasis into this, as you would expect and we have a in the process of appointing Michael Drumm, the former Chief Risk Officer of the bank, to be head of compliance with part of that role to, to look after sustainability. We have three pillars to our sustainability strategy. One is environmental, second is people and third is financial well-being. In terms of the environment, there are three areas that we're focusing.
One is on measuring, so we've adopted an environmental risk screening tool to help with our decisioning process and increasingly, it's going to be important in terms of our reverse mortgage business. We've undertaken the ANZSIC code analysis to understand our exposure to customers with high emissions. The second area is contribution. What are we doing to help? And currently, we see ourselves very well positioned to assist in the electrification of the motor fleet and the number of EVs that we have funded over the last year has doubled. And then finally, there's our own footprint. So we have achieved a 17% baseline reduction. We did very well in terms of first, Scope 1 and Scope 2.
Some of those huge steps forward, however, were offset by the fact we had been doing a lot of traveling to Australia for obvious reasons and that has meant that our Scope 3 emissions reductions had, to a certain extent, offset the good work we're doing in one and two. In terms of people, our flagship achievement really is Manawa Ako, the internship that we run for initially Māori and now opened it up for Pasifika. We've had more than 100 alumni come through. We're on to our sixth intake. Every intake that comes in enriches our experience. We get better at it. We learn more about how do we become accessible to rangatahi in terms of an employer of choice. We've seen that convert into a rich source of talent.
Many of the alumni work part-time or full-time for us and while they have learned a lot more about Te Ao Pakihi, we are continuing to learn a lot more about being an employer of choice for Te Māori. We also maintained our Rainbow Tick and became accredited as a hearing workplace. Finally, once again, we were recognized as the Savings Bank of the Year, so reflecting the value that we give to our customers. Financial well-being, our contribution really is two things that stand out for me. One is the Extend product that we developed during COVID, which as I referred to earlier and Leanne will talk a bit more about in terms of our One Click Deferral program.
It is a means for customers to self-help, when it comes to, organizing their cash flows, the way in which they prefer to service and repay their loan to meet the, their, their circumstances, whether it be to accelerate repayment or to slow down repayment, depending on what their circumstances are. I think it's a very important tool, not just in terms of flexibility and savings cost, but also to treat our customers with dignity. Secondly, we now have 48,000 Australians and New Zealanders, living in their own homes, as a result of having a reverse mortgage with us and that's a very important contribution to social well-being, in both countries. All right. I will pause there and hand over to Andrew, who will take you through the details of the financial results. Andrew?
Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everyone. So I'm on slide 11, which summarizes the group financial performance and position for FY 2023. As is customary now, as reported on both a statutory reported basis and what we term underlying, which excludes the impacts of significant one-off items. These are amplified in the current financial year, so I will spend a little bit of time just working through those. Firstly, profit on a reported basis was NZD 95.9 million, an increase of NZD 0.7 million or 0.8% on prior year. On an underlying basis, this was NZD 110.2 million, which is an increase of NZD 14.1 million, or 14.6% from the prior year.
I'll cover each component of the financial result in subsequent slides, but first wanted just to walk through the key impacts of the NZD 14.3 million difference between reported and underlying NPAT. So firstly, net interest income was impacted by a NZD 1.9 million interest expense related to the NZD 174 million bridging loan, which was used to acquire StockCo Australia. This loan was fully repaid in September 2022, using the proceeds from the equity raise. Secondly and this is where the bulk of the actions at, other operating income was impacted by two key items. Firstly, a NZD 9.1 million loss contributed by the derivatives that were de-designated from their prior hedge accounting relationships in FY 2022.
You may recall that the de-designation resulted in a NZD 16.7 million mark-to-market accounting gain recognized in 2022. This mark-to-market gain is subsequently unwound as a loss, as the cash flows from these derivatives are realized. The remaining NZD 7.7 million will unwind across the next 2 financial years, so we will see this item again in the future, albeit with a reduced impact. Secondly, we had a NZD 4.5 million fair value loss resulting from our investment in Harmoney. The fair value as at 30 June 2023 was determined using the last traded price of Harmoney shares on the Australian Stock Exchange, which was AUD 0.32 per share on 30 June 2023.
Finally, in terms of the one-off significant items, operating expenses were impacted by NZD 2.2 million of transaction and other costs in relation to the potential acquisition of an ADI in Australia. I would note additionally, there are NZD 6.4 million of costs that are directly attributable to applying to become an ADI, which have been capitalized as an intangible asset. For the remainder of the presentation, I will refer largely to underlying results and appreciate that there is a few items there to digest. Appendix 3 of the presentation provides further details and a reconciliation between reported and underlying results. Moving to slide 12, growth and profitability. I'll step through the components which bridge NPAT year-on-year.
Also note that Heartland Group's results for 2023 include a full year of StockCo Australia, which impact the prior year comparatives and I'll call out the impact of StockCo Australia's contribution to each line item separately as I go through them. Underlying net interest income was NZD 283.9 million, an increase of NZD 35.6 million, or 14.3% higher than the prior year, of which StockCo Australia contributed NZD 21.8 million. This result was driven by continued strong net interest margin, which was 4%, combined with just over NZD 1.1 billion higher average earning interest-earning assets. NZD 392 million of was contributed by StockCo Australia. Year-on-year receivables grew NZD 625 million, which was just over 10% annual growth, noting this excludes the impacts of changes in foreign currency.
Underlying other operating income was NZD 16.9 million, which was up NZD 3.1 million, or 22.7% on the prior year. And this was primarily driven by an increase in upfront reverse mortgage income, following the continued strong receivables growth experienced in both New Zealand and Australia. Underlying operating expenses were NZD 126.2 million, up NZD 14.9 million or 13.4% on the prior year. NZD 8.9 million of this increase related to StockCo Australia, with the residual NZD 6 million increase, a combination of increased upfront reverse mortgage expenses, which are offset by the income previously mentioned and higher staff expenses.
Jeff mentioned the drive towards a lower cost-to-income ratio and if we look at the marginal cost-to-income ratio, StockCo's marginal CTI was around 40% and of the residual growth in net operating income compared to growth in operating expenses, the marginal CTI was about 36%. So you can see we're starting to demonstrate that pathway down. Underlying impaired asset expense was NZD 23.2 million, which was up NZD 7.5 million on the prior year. Increases due to the provisioning impact on book growth, combined with a slower runoff in the Harmoney portfolio and an increase in late-stage arrears in the motor and asset finance portfolios. Further, motor provisioning has been increased to allow for the potential impact of rising unemployment. Moving to Slide 13, Net Interest Margin.
Underlying NIM decreased 16 basis points to 4% in 2023, with proactive portfolio pricing and margin management stabilizing NIM in the second half, with underlying 2023 NIM only decreasing 2 basis points compared with the first half. The contraction in NIM has been mainly due to margin compression in individual portfolios, with Heartland quick to pass on the benefits of the rise in cash rate to its depositors and intentionally delaying passing the full impact of these increases onto some borrowers. While this did not maximize potential NIM, was a socially responsible and a more sustainable approach. Secondly, a continued shift in portfolio mix towards high-quality assets continued, where we saw a reduction in personal lending and unsecured SME lending, as well as the business and rural relationship portfolios experiencing larger repayments of high-risk loans.
This was replaced by strong growth in the high-quality portfolios, such as reverse mortgages and, to a lesser degree, online home loans. Further to this, individual portfolio quality has improved, for example, in the motor portfolio, where the weighting of franchise new origination has increased. Market share has also been grown at the expense of margin in some markets, most notably in motor. And finally, there's a small portfolio of older motor and asset finance loans, which were written at historically lower margins, will continue to be repaid and refinance at higher margins. These impacts were partly offset following the acquisition of StockCo, which is a higher margin portfolio. And while this portfolio is relatively flat, which will be discussed by Chris later, growth is expected in FY 2024, is expected to contribute positively to NIM.
Overall, the outlook for NIM in FY 2024 remains stable, though it does remain subject to changes in the portfolio mix. Slide 14, Cost-to-Income Ratio. Underlying operating expenses increased NZD 14.9 million from the prior year, with NZD 8.9 million of this increase contributed by StockCo, Australia. The remaining NZD 6 million increase was mainly driven by a 4.6% increase in staff expenses due to an increase in average full-time equivalent employees, combined with general labor cost inflation. We also had an increase in upfront reverse mortgage expenses, which again, was offset by the corresponding upfront reverse mortgage income. And finally, there was an increase in travel expenses as travel resumed following COVID-19 travel restrictions being lifted, albeit this remains lower than the historical average and there were some increases in administrative, general administrative costs.
Heartland's underlying cost-to-income ratio has improved 53 basis points from the prior year to 42%. Moving to loan provisions. So underlying impairment expense was NZD 23.2 million, which is up NZD 7.5 million on the prior year. Underlying impairment expense ratio was 36 basis points, which is up 7 basis points on FY 2022 and this is due to increased late-stage arrears in motor and asset finance as borrowers adjust to higher interest rates. This has not translated into increased losses as unemployment remains low. Motor losses show a strong correlation with unemployment and while this relationship is nonlinear, we have included an allowance in our motor provisioning based on a weighted range of unemployment forecasts. Impairment was also impacted by a slower runoff in the Harmoney book.
In terms of overlays, we have utilized NZD 5.6 million of the NZD 8 million general economic overlay taken in FY 2022 to allocate to specific loans in the business relationship and asset finance portfolios, which have been most impacted by low economic growth. These specific provisions, together with the NZD 2.4 million of the general economic overlay, remain on foot as at 30 June 2023. The outlook for FY 2024 is expected to provide broadly similar credit outcomes as the current financial year, with borrowers continuing to adjust to higher interest rates, which appear to have peaked, supported by low unemployment and good economic activity in the sectors that we serve. Slide 16, shareholder return.
Underlying return on equity of 11.9% decreased 68 basis points on the prior year, reflecting a strengthened capital position following Heartland's equity raise in the first half of 2023, with that equity raised ahead of the full earnings benefit. Equity to total assets was 11.4% in the prior year and that increased to 13.3% in the current financial year. A like-for-like comparison would see return on equity well above 12%. A fully imputed interim dividend of 6%, 6 cents per share, has been declared, delivering a dividend yield of 9.3%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points on the prior year and retaining Heartland amongst the top dividend yield stocks in both New Zealand and Australia. A 2% discount will apply to the DRP.
Moving on to slide 17, which will be talked in more detail in the divisional summaries. Strong period of growth saw FY 2023 increase receivables by NZD 625 million, producing an aggregate annual growth rate of 10.1%. The second half of the financial year saw a pleasing acceleration of growth in both motor and Australian reverse mortgages, supported by Livestock New Zealand. The household segment saw NZD 374 million of growth at an annual growth rate of 15.3%, largely driven by reverse mortgages and motor. The runoff of the Harmoney portfolio has continued, albeit more slowly, as well as personal loans that Heartland itself originates, which contribute to an improved risk profile and quality of our lending book.
The New Zealand business segment saw a decline of NZD 31 million, mainly driven by a contraction in our business relationship books, as well as wholesale lending and Open for Business, which was partially offset by strong growth in asset finance. So the New Zealand rural segment saw NZD 11 million of growth at an annual growth rate of 1.7%. Livestock finance and the Rural Direct channel grew 11.6% and 11.2% respectively. Finally, Australian reverse mortgages recorded AUD 264 million of growth, producing an annual growth rate of 20.7%. Moving on to slide 18, New Zealand funding and liquidity.
Heartland Bank increased borrowings by just under NZD 400 million, which is an increase of 9.2% to NZD 4.7 billion, with a shift in funding towards deposits and pleasingly, no impact on investor sentiment following bank failures abroad. Deposits grew 14.8% to NZD 4.1 billion, driven by our competitive pricing on targeted products, including Heartland's Notice Saver offerings, which were awarded Canstar New Zealand awards in both July 2022 and July 2023. In the first and second quarters of FY 2023, Heartland Bank experienced the highest growth rate in retail deposits of all main and domestic banks in New Zealand. Other borrowings decreased by NZD 134.4 million and this was largely due to the maturity of our inaugural NZD 150 million retail bond.
The amount drawn in Heartland Bank's committed auto warehouse was also reduced by NZD 41 million. This was partially offset by Heartland Bank's successful issuance of NZD 100 million of subordinated notes to the retail market in the second half of 2023. These notes qualify as Tier Two capital for regulatory purposes. This issuance further diversifies and strengthens Heartland Bank's capital base, positioning it well for meeting the increased Reserve Bank of New Zealand capital requirements in the future. Overall, total liquidity remains strong and Heartland is holding liquidity well in excess of its regulatory minimums. Turning to slide 19, Australian funding and liquidity. Heartland Australia increased borrowings by AUD 282 million during the year and has access to committed Australian reverse mortgage loan funding now of AUD 1.54 billion in aggregate.
AUD 80 million of medium-term notes were issued during the financial year and Heartland Australia's April 2023, AUD 120 million MTN maturity was refinanced, taking aggregate outstanding issuance under the program to AUD 240 million. Reverse mortgage securitization warehouses were extended by 2 and 3 years, respectively and aggregate senior limits were expanded by AUD 100 million during the year, providing additional headroom to fund growth in the portfolio. There are a number of initiatives in the late stages of progress to provide further reverse mortgage funding headroom, as well as maturity date extension, as we continue to see strong growth in this portfolio. Finally, moving to capital on slide 20.
Following the equity raise completed in September 2022, group capital increased to NZD 1.03 billion, which is 13.3% of total assets, positioning it well for future growth opportunities. Additionally, Heartland Bank's total capital ratio at 30 June increased to 14.69%, following the NZD 100 million Tier Two issuance and this is an increase from 13.49% in the previous period. This has accelerated the journey to meet the future capital requirements, which are for a Common Equity Tier One ratio of 11.5% and a total capital ratio of 16% by 1 July 2028. I'll now hand over to Leanne, who will cover the New Zealand divisionals.
Good morning and thank you. The New Zealand business update will focus on two key areas, one on growth and performance and the other on our commitment to efficiency. Starting with growth and performance on page 22, the New Zealand business demonstrated resilience with overall growth and receivables of 7.8% year-on-year. Total net operating income for the New Zealand business increased by 1.8%, of which 1.6% in net interest income and the difference in other operating income. The interest and net interest income was only 1.6% versus the 7.8% year-on-year receivables growth, largely due to the contraction in portfolio loans. We are well aware that the cash rates in New Zealand have seen a rapid and sharp increase, which has created a difficult environment in which to manage margins.
Heartland intentionally delayed on passing the full impact of these increases onto some of our borrowers and in the case of our reverse mortgage customers, did not pass on the full increase. NIM compression was also due to the continued shift in portfolio composition towards lower risk exposures. Personal lending and unsecured SME lending continued to reduce. Business and rural relationship lending experienced larger repayments of the higher-risk loans. Most of finance experienced market share gains at the expense of margin. And, with our deposits and our general margin compression was due to a shift in the asset quality and competitive pressures. With regard to our depositors, we were quick to pass on the benefits of the rising cash rate.
Turning to page 23, the graph highlights the portfolio mix of household, contributing to 57.7% of the book, business, 28% and rural, 14.3%. As you will see, there was double-digit growth in reverse mortgages, motor, home loans, livestock finance and then we had asset finance at 7.8%. For the remaining portfolios, there was a shift in portfolio composition towards the lower risk exposures. Moving to household on page 24, starting off with motor finance. As you will see, motor finance receivables increased by 13.5%. Net operating income decreased by 11.9%. As I previously mentioned, the market share gains was at the expense of margin, as well as a shift in asset quality.
New business, however, did increase by 11.6%, with overall growth of 13.5%. Digitization, as well as expansion of our network, were key contributors towards our growth. With regard to our reverse mortgage portfolio, we had growth of 23.2% in New Zealand. Net operating income increase of 13.3%. We continue to see and experience strong demand due to the cost of living and cash, cash flow pressures faced by older homeowners, as well as an increased awareness and education, as well as acceptance of reverse mortgages. Page 25 of the presentation outlines portfolio analytics for the New Zealand reverse mortgages. When we look at our outlook for New Zealand reverse mortgages, it continues to remain positive with additional demand from cost of living pressures. Moving on to online home loans.
While this growth was subdued, we did see a growth increase of 14.1%, NOI increase of 18.2%. Heartland has remained very disciplined with respect to our pricing strategy. Our low-cost digital origination platform allows us to remain competitive. We've seen strong retention rates exceeding 90% for those customers whose interest rates came up for renewal during the period of this financial year. With regard to personal lending, this portfolio is not actively originating. Moving on to page 26, business. Asset finance receivables, as I said, increased by 7.8% year-on-year. Net operating income decreased by 0.5% compared with FY 2022. Our focus remains on freight transport and the yellow goods sectors.
Once again, NIM was impacted by the mix of new business, improved profile, lower margins being repaid and replaced and we expect to see a positive contribution towards margin in the second half of FY 2024. Wholesale lending receivables decreased by 9.9% and this reflects lower utilization of limits as a result of unpredictable inventory conditions in the second half of 2023. Our business relationship receivables decreased by 9.9%, or 8.2%, actually, as this portfolio continues to transition away from legacy businesses to loans which present a lower risk. Open for Business, Heartland stopped actively originating Open for Business loans in the second half of this financial year. Moving on to page 27, our rural portfolio and this portfolio is made up of livestock finance, rural relationship and rural direct.
We saw receivables increase to 1.7%. We saw net operating income increase to 13.5%, key contributor being livestock finance, growth of 11.6%. I'll now turn to our second area of focus, page 28, our commitment to efficiency. The heart of the ambition is to achieve an underlying cost to income ratio of less than 35% by 2028. And we will achieve this both through revenue growth and ongoing automation and digitization initiatives. Key to achieving our ambition is increasing customer self-service functionality and improving efficiency through streamlining and digitizing our internal ways of working. Working in tandem, we will realize synergistic benefits from combining straight-through origination with streamlined digital back-end processing, while building out features necessary for customers to self-serve.
This activity is intended to provide customers with frictionless service, as well as provide a foundation for Heartland's future scalable growth. We have a very clear roadmap with four key initiatives that has been built and this will be delivered through a systemized program of work that enhances digital, self-service and automation capabilities. We have used data to inform our insights to drive our action. The four initiatives that's outlined in the presentation talks to our zero inbound calls into our bank. We will digitize basic banking requests to enable customers to self-serve via the Heartland mobile app. Features will be developed to address the top reasons for customers calling us. We have an ambition to reduce inbound customer call volumes by approximately 73% by June of 2025 and then the remaining by 28.
As an example, delivering seven new mobile app features will address 40% of current call volumes. Our next initiative is One Click Deferral that Jeff spoke about a little earlier on. Our customers will be offered increased flexibility for them to manage their motor finance loan repayments digitally via the app and this includes our customers that are in arrears. We will develop seven new mobile app features and functions to enable customers to self-manage their repayments, reducing the need for them to call us at Heartland. The third initiative is around process automation, which we will continue to automate back-end operational systems to streamline the way in which we work, as well as improve efficiency. Our ambition is to automate 65% of current operations and collections manual processes by June 2025. Our fourth initiative is in our motor space.
M otor digitization, where we continue to enhance motor finance digital capabilities for faster and easier ways in which for customers to access vehicle finance. We intend to roll out seven branded online origination platforms to motor finance dealer partners in this financial year and thereafter continue to roll out further enhancements. Now, key to the success of our program is customer adoption and behavior. We have a very strong focus on transforming customer adoption of our digital platforms, which will include driving awareness of features and usage of self-service. We'll measure this through the mobile app uptake, as well as active use of the mobile app. And finally, in addition to this program of work, the upgrade of the Heartland core banking system is nearing completion and is due to go live within this calendar year.
This upgraded system provides us a platform on which to deliver increased levels of automation and digitization, positioning Heartland for increased scalability in the future, both from a growth and an efficiency perspective. I'll now hand over to Chris Flood.
Thanks, Leanne and good morning, everyone. I'm on page 30. Just briefly talking to the slide, just sets out the strong growth that's been talked about in Australia, AUD 270 million, 16.5%. It also highlights the operating income benefits of having StockCo on the books for a full 12-month period. Looking at slide 31 now and breaking that growth down in a little more detail, it was clearly a reverse mortgage story up 21%. StockCo was flat and I'll come to that. Just note that the Australian receivables now are just under AUD 2 billion and I reflect on when we bought the reverse mortgage business in 2014. It was a book of AUD 378 million, which just shows fantastic growth rates.
Turning now to page 32 and looking at the reverse mortgage book in a little more detail. Demographics continue to work with us, with more Australians over the age of 65 and that's set to continue, also benefiting from greater awareness. The compound growth rate of the book over the last 5 years now is sitting at 23%, so that's a fantastic result and we expect those rates to continue. Helped in part by the cost of living increases that Australians and indeed New Zealanders are experiencing and that's driving some behavioral changes in the book, with more regular advances and people supplementing their existing incomes, withdrawing on their reverse mortgages and also more people retiring with modest debt.
Not only do we write more business than anyone else in Australia, but we're also recognized by industry groups with the Australian Mortgage Awards Excellence and a finalist in the Best Innovation group as well. Page 33 simply sets out some of the stats and I'm happy to take questions on that later. And then lastly, just wanna touch on the Australian rural book, our StockCo book, which experienced modest growth. When you look at the underlying performance, it was actually excellent. There were a few things that impacted on the growth rates. First of all, weather across the East Coast of Australia at the start of the financial year slowed production and you'll recall it was very wet.
It combined at the same time as the US drought and which saw a lot of US farms destock and so that, combined with the China COVID lockdowns and the slowing in their economy, saw the commodity prices drop. So what that means is, as we were realizing stock and farmers were replacing it, they were replacing it at a lot lower cost and that led to a flatter growth. When you look at the underlying result, as I said earlier, customer numbers were up some 11%. Cattle numbers are up 29%. Sheep were largely flat and that's a product of the lamb market turning quite quickly.
We are now confronted with processor capacity issues that Australia are importing people from South America who are experienced to improve that, but it will take some time to clear. But the prospects for the year ahead are very bright. We're focused, repositioned the focus to target intermediation. So you've seen a strong relationship with Elders, who are one of the largest rural services companies in Australia and then also independent livestock agencies. so and that will be supported by continued digital development, which will improve the efficiencies and the scalabilities of the business. I'll hand back now to Jeff Greenslade .
Thank you and thank you to the others. So the outlook for us, really is, I guess, on one level, more of the same. Very strong, continued performance around those products that set ourselves apart, the reverse mortgages in both countries, which benefit from a strong demographic, demand for the product and that demand is not at all impacted by macroeconomic conditions. Secondly, the motor book, again, the utility of cars coming through despite, a tougher environment in the market, demonstrating strong demand for cars and for finance. And then thirdly, the asset finance book, which has that, strong dependency upon the infrastructure spend, which looks like it's gonna continue and the need for trucks as the main way of getting freight around the country.
T hat group of products really sets us apart, not subject to the vicissitudes of the residential property market. Secondly, what sets us apart is Australia. So we have this tremendous opportunity to grow in Australia, a much bigger market and we're not wide-eyed Kiwis going out to the great unknown. We are there already. We're already number one in reverse mortgages. We're number one in livestock. We are working towards getting a bank license and once that is gained, we will utilize the distribution partnerships that we already have in place with manufacturers and distributors in Australia, to roll out auto and trucking finance and occupy a unique position in Australia, as being a bank-funded operator in those markets. The third thing that sets us apart is this unrelenting commitment to efficiency.
We are constantly moving towards improvement in all of our processes to take out manual processes, to automate and shift everything that we possibly can onto the mobile phone, in order to both lower the cost of onboarding, lower the cost of customer service, but improve customer service. Sitting, waiting on a telephone for 30 minutes for your bank to pick up is not good service. That's not the way to interact with, with your customers. So, reflecting on our performance over the last 10 or so years since we became a bank , Matapono has held us in good stead, particularly as I referred to earlier, Mahi Toa and Mahi Tipu, of being bold and adapting and evolving. And over that period, since we've become a bank, we have more than, we've doubled our profits more than three times.
That is a combination of our willingness to innovate, our focus on best-of-breed products, our ability to transcend geography and to operate in Australia. We expect those initiatives and those values to continue to guide us into the future. Turning finally to guidance, the range for FY 2024 is NZD 116 million to NZD 122 million. That is underlying profitability, so that excludes the impact of fair value adjustments or the designation of derivatives. It also excludes the impacts of integrating Challenger Bank. When we settle, we will recast guidance based on the outcome of how that settlement process transpires. Finally, I'd like to thank all the people of Heartland for their exceptional efforts. Once again, interesting year.
Some turbulence still continuing.... however, we have managed to produce, I think, a very credible result despite that turbulence. So, thank you also to our shareholders for your ongoing support. Thank you all. So we'll open up for questions. I believe we've got some more time.
At this time, if you'd like to ask a question, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. Our first question will come from the line of Grant Lowe with Jarden. Please go ahead.
H i, team. Can you hear me okay? Hi, team, can you hear me okay?
We can. Hi, Grant.
H i, team. Just, a few questions from me. Just looking at the, NPAT, underlying NPAT this year of NZD 110.2, is that directly comparable to the guidance that was provided, previously, which I, I understand was reported NPAT, except for the fair value moves and derivatives? I, I come out with a number, if I just add those back to reported NPAT, I come back with a, a number slightly lower. How should I think about that?
Y es, it is. It also on top of that, as we did last year, or as we did at the half, I should say, we had the interest expense on StockCo, which is stripped out. We've also stripped out costs related to costs incurred to date related to the potential acquisition of Challenger.
Andrew, the terms of percentage terms, those two other items were about 90%, was it?
Yes.
I t's a little bit difficult to unpick with tax impacts. So just to be clear, though, the fair value moves and the derivatives are non-taxable items, presumably?
Correct.
Okay, cool. Then just looking at the impairment expense, obviously, you know, the economy's still holding up fairly well and unemployment and the like. I appreciate that it is all based on forward-looking assumptions that you, you're required to expense on a forward-looking basis. So just in terms of the breakdown in terms of the NZD 9.4 million uplift in impairment expense year-on-year, can you just provide a rough breakdown of how much of that was motors versus the personal lending?
A round or about NZD 5 million was motors, of which about two, just over NZD 2 million related to us making an allowance for future, potential future unemployment levels, with the residual related to the deterioration in the arrears profile, particularly the late-stage arrears.
A re those arrears that are currently loans that are currently in arrears?
Correct.
Cool. And so I guess that implies circa NZD 4.5 million on personal also. Just looking at-- so looking at those two, the personal obviously has been winding down for some time. What would you. Does it, is this a catchall for the remainder of that loan book, the Harmoney and the stuff on your own balance sheet? But could, sorry, just to rephrase that, could we expect more things to deteriorate further from here materially?
Though, so the, both books, so both the Harmoney book and the Harmoney originator book are now in unwind. There is very little of the Harmoney portfolio left w hich was maybe NZD 4 million in each country. So, I don't expect there to be a huge impact going forward of that book. Obviously, we will see how unemployment flows through because that, b oth books are correlated to unemployment as well.
J ust in terms of the assumptions that went into that from a macroeconomic perspective in terms of unemployment rates or otherwise?
A re you talking exact unemployment in terms of the cases? So we've included the cases in our financial statements, you can pull those out. So we've got an upside, downside and central case. In terms of the outlook from FY24 to FY26, it moves from the current level up to 5% and then 6%. Those aren't exact numbers, but just to give you a ballpark. And then we've propped probability weightings across those scenarios.
Got it. I f unemployment did track to those sorts of levels, are you confident that you've captured in today's impairments that on a forward-looking basis, I suppose is the question?
Absolutely. So that, that's, that's the point of it. What we've done is, based on our data that we have, we've done a regression analysis to unemployment. And what we see is it's a nonlinear relationship. Losses start really biting when we get north of 5.5%-6% unemployment, which at the moment is not forecast at all in the next couple of years.
Our next question will come from the line of Wade Gardiner with Craigs Investment Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi, can you hear me okay?
Yes.
Hello? Hi, just a couple of questions from me. First of all, the economic overlay, NZD 2 million less. Any thoughts of keeping that? What was the rationale of using it versus, you know, keeping the provision there and expensing the license, given that, you know, certainly from where I'm sitting, the economic environment is still very uncertain.
W e've an abundance of caution, 'cause we could, we see that area is less impacted by unemployment. That's the correlation that we use for particularly motor. So economic activity is what we think is most correlated to that business market and what we saw was some customers during the course of the year, the tail end of COVID, impacting them and just lower activity coming through, so to utilize that for the original purpose that was intended. So, like, as you say, we don't see ourselves quite out of the woods yet in terms of business sector.
W e're hopeful that, you know, it'll be a short and shallow recession, but the mindset was to err on the side of caution and to retain our top of that overlay.
What's the rationale? I've noticed some comments in the pack about structuring Challenger, if you know, Challenger, under Heartland Bank. What was the rationale for that structure versus keeping it outside of the New Zealand Bank and having it as Australian subsidiary?
Quite a long story behind that, but if like, the short version is, that became the easiest route in terms of both regulators.
Right. Okay.
When we catch up, I can give you a bit more granularity. It's, there's quite a bit to it, that's, I feel like, a succinct summary.
Just interested in the impact of higher interest rates on those reverse mortgage books. I mean, I understand, you know, the cost of living argument and therefore, you know, more frequent withdrawals. But is there a natural cap, do you think, in terms of where customers want will allow the the LVR to get to? I t is ticking up a bit.
The LVRs have not moved significantly, but customers are conscious of it. And I suspect anecdotally and by looking at the performance of the book, because customers repay well before, mortality sets in after about 7-8 years, I suspect you're right, that at the back of people's minds, they've got, how much of the house equity they want to preserve so that they've got enough to go either into care or into a smaller place elsewhere. So, so I, I think that is a, you know, we can't prove that scientifically, but I think the logic is clear that people, yes, they do have a backstop equity that they like to have.
You're not seeing that yet at all, really?
No, we're funny enough, we saw the acceleration of repayments happening when property prices were accelerating in Melbourne and Sydney. We saw an increase in repayments and again, anecdotally, because people felt that this is the peak, the peak of the market, it would never get as good as this, now is the time to cash up and maximize the value of the house. In this environment, we're seeing repayments coming down. So, you know, it's early days to work out exactly what is going on, but we've seen the pipeline go up and repayments going down as interest rates and inflation have moved up.
T hat's all for me. Thank you.
With that, I'll hand the call back over to Jeff Greenslade for any closing remarks.
Thank you all very much for attending. Much appreciated. Once again, thank you to all. Thank you for your support and we look forward to catching up with you in the next week or so for more detailed questions.