Australia's ANZ bank profits fall 3 pct in 1st 9 month to June

Australia's fourth largest bank ANZ's profits have slipped by 3 percent to 5.2 billion Australian dollars (3.97 billion U.S. dollars) for the first nine months to June 30 due to restructuring costs and bad debts.

Net profit for the same period was recorded at 4.3 billion Australian dollars (3.28 billion U.S. dollars), the lender said in a statement to the ASX on Tuesday.

Net interest margins remained stable despite increased funding costs and asset pricing competition, helped by gains in its institutional business. The bank made provisions of 1.4 billion Australian dollars (1.07 billion U.S. dollars) for the nine-month period, but said bad debt charges in the third quarter were in line with the average of the previous six months.

"We want to be prepared for that slow-growth environment and that says that much more of our focus is on righting our own ship and getting our costs under control," ANZ's chief executive Shayne Elliott said.

In recent months, ANZ has been focusing on cutting costs and restructuring its operations by exiting riskier assets amid slowing growth.

In May, the bank cut its interim dividend for the first time since the global financial crisis after first-half cash profit dived 24.3 percent to 2.78 billion Australian dollars (2.12 billion U.S. dollars) and the results for that period were hit by large restructuring charges and bad debt. Enditem