Feb 17 (Reuters) - Australia's Westpac Banking WBC.AX posted a 13% rise in its first-quarter net profit on Monday, helped by growth in customer deposits and housing and business loan volumes.

The country's No.3 lender by market value said unaudited net profit was A$1.7 billion ($1.08 billion) for the three months ended December 31, compared with A$1.5 billion posted a year earlier.

($1 = 1.5748 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand and Rajasik Mukherjee in BengaluruEditing by Marguerita Choy)

((Himanshi.Akhand@thomsonreuters.com; Rajasik.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com;))