ANZ has beaten earnings expectations across the board, but the results don't appear to have been strong enough to impress the market.
The bank on Thursday announced its cash profit for the 12 months to September 30 had increased five per cent to $6.5 billion, beating consensus expectations by 6.4 per cent.
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott said it was an outstanding financial result with contributions from all four divisions of the company: retail, commercial, institutional and New Zealand.
"We restored momentum in Australian home loans with application approval times back in line with industry peers," he said, adding that ANZ would introduce fully automated digital home loans next year.
Its commercial profit was up 11 per cent, institutional revenue was up two per cent year on year and ANZ's profit from New Zealand was up seven per cent for the year.
The company announced a final dividend of 74c per share, beating expectations of a 73c dividend. Its total payout for the year will be $1.46 per share, up 3 per cent from last year.
David Berthon-Jones, co-chief investment officer with Aequitas Investment Partners, tweeted that it was a "strong result to open the big bank reporting season".
But at 10.38am AEDT, ANZ shares were down 3.9 per cent to $24.84, with the other big four banks falling by between 1.4 to 2.0 per cent.
Mr Elliott warned of looming uncertainty as central banks struggled to control inflation and events like the war in Ukraine weighed on markets.
However, he said both the bank and the economy were well-positioned to weather what might come.
"If we look at the data today, Australian households and New Zealand households have never been wealthier, they've never been more employed," he said.
Australian net household debt was the lowest it had been in 15 years and the number of customers behind on debt repayments continued to fall, although Mr Elliott said that was likely to change soon.
For those customers who might be at risk of mortgage stress - such as those who borrowed more than 80 per cent and bought at the height of the market - ANZ has invested heavily in systems that can identify them.
"For example, we can quickly identify home loans located in a postcode experiencing falling house values for those who are already in or approaching negative equity and actively monitor them and help as needed," the ANZ chief said.
Mr Elliott said that the bank's new digital offering, ANZ Plus, was seeing early success, with deposits reaching $1.2 billion.
He said it was growing at a faster pace than any other new digital bank in Australia and ANZ was focused on migrating existing customers to the platform.
ANZ agreed in July to buy Suncorp's banking business for $4.9 billion in the industry's biggest deal in a decade, although the agreement is yet to get regulatory approval.
Mr Elliott said Suncorp was a well-run business that would provide important growth for ANZ through its exposure to the fast-growing Queensland economy.
