ANZ defers interim dividend
ANZ +1.44%: despite finishing the day higher, it was a tough slog for ANZ which trailed its Big 4 peers throughout the session. Their first half result was light on compared to NAB’s at the end of last week, and although the market wasn’t expecting much, it did feel like it fell short. Impaired assets topped $1.12b while the bank put aside a provision of around $1b for the impact of COVID-19 which looks light on and makes their CET1 level look a bit better than most would expect. Still though, with CET1 below 11% ANZ opted not to pay an interim dividend for now – deferring their decision. Strong trading income partially helped support the result, but it also came with an $815m impairment of their troublesome Asian investments. We prefer other banks
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