Wellington, Nov 26 NZPA - SBS Bank said customer deposits grew by nearly $300 million, or more than 15 percent, in the past 12 months since it became a bank.

The former Southland Building Society made a profit of $6.54 million after tax for the six months ended September 30, up from $5.36m in the same period last year.

The key difference was an improvement in the revaluation adjustments to financial instruments.

The operating surplus of $9.65m, was little changed from $9.93m last year.

Tim Loan, the bank's general manager finance, said the result was extremely satisfying considering the demanding financial environment experienced by banking and financial institutions over the past year.

Total assets increased by $71.9m to $2.61 billion and total lending by $58m to $2.46 billion. Customer deposits totalled $2.23 billion. The bank's capital ratio is 13.4 percent, which is one of the highest ratios for registered banks in New Zealand.