Wealth management drives Commbank

The Commonwealth Banking Group has recorded a solid September, with its wealth management and insurance divisions showing particular improvement.

In an announcement released to the Australian Securities Exchange today, the big banking group said that its unaudited cash earnings for the quarter were about $1.4 billion. It added that this had been supported by good income growth and the continuation of disciplined cost management.

It said that the funds management income and investment experience had improved, consistent with stronger equity markets. Funds under management increased 8.3 per cent to $190 billion, group net inflows were positive at $2.3 billion and FirstChoice attracted strong retail flows.

It said inforce premiums had increased by 2.1 per cent to $1.6 billion with solid new business volumes in retail life and general insurance.

Commenting on the result, CBA chief executive, Ralph Norris said the result had benefited particularly from an improvement in the company’s wealth management division as equity markets recovered through the quarter.

But he noted that while the economic outlook had improved, the pace and extent of the recovery remained unclear.

“We will therefore continue to retain our conservative business settings until such time as a sustained improvement is evident,” he said. “Our capital, provisioning, funding and liquidity levels all remain very strong.”