National Australia has continued to reap the benefits of its strategy changes, reporting a first-half statutory net profit of $2.55 billion compared to the $1.74 billion loss it reported for the March 2016 half-year.
The big banking group said the improved result primarily reflected reduced losses from discontinued operations, and acknowledged that excluding those discontinued businesses statutory net profit decreased by 11.4 per cent.
The Board announced an interim dividend of 99 cents per share, fully franked.
The half-year results pointed to NAB continuing to struggle in its wealth businesses, with the Consumer Banking and Wealth division reporting stable cash earnings of $764 million “impacted by higher funding costs, increased competition in home lending and reduced wealth income”.
Commenting on the result, NAB Group chief executive, Andrew Thorburn described it as “solid” and said it reflected improved momentum as the company executed its strategy.
He said the operating environment for banks remained challenging, including heightened regulatory change, digital disruption and increasing stakeholder expectations.
However Thorburn said Australia’s economic fundamentals provided a favourable backdrop including strong population growth and improving business conditions.
