An analyst has expressed concern about mortgage applications lodged with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX: ANZ).
ANZ shares closed at $27.63 on Tuesday, a 0.54% fall. For perspective, the S&P/ASX 200 Financials Index (ASX: XFJ) finished 0.91% lower. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) also ended the session down 1.93%.
Let's take a look at what this analyst had to say about ANZ.
Mortgage application concerns
A UBS mortgage survey found more than 50% of people applying for a new mortgage with the ANZ had inaccuracies on their applications, The Australian reported.
UBS analyst John Storey said:
We think this is particularly concerning, given ANZ's persistent declines in mortgage market share, and the fact that 81 per cent of the 93 respondents who misrepresented their ANZ originated loan claim they were advised to do so by their banker.
However, an ANZ spokesman defended the company's loan verification process, the Australian Financial Review reported. He said:
After several years of similar external reports about the quality of applications, our delinquency numbers have gone down, not up.
Our numbers are as good as, if not better, than our peers which provides a strong indicator of ANZ's capacity to accurately verify loan applications
Citi analysts have recently rated ANZ shares as a buy with a price target of $30.75. This is 11% more than the current share price.
ANZ share price summary
The ANZ share price has slipped nearly 4% over the past 12 months, while it is 0.51% in the green year to date.
In the past month, ANZ shares have climbed 0.14% while they are up 0.84% in a week.
The bank has a market capitalisation of $77 billion based on the current share price.
