Well, looking at yesterday’s Commonwealth Bank full year result, several points stand out.
Firstly, there were no surprises. Secondly, therefore there is no justification for that violent sell-off on Tuesday.
And thirdly, the CBA (and other banks) are increasingly emulating utilities (such as water, power and gas companies) in that they have huge amounts of everything (assets, cash, customers, borrowings and, in this case, loans).
The banks won’t be outperformers in the way they were before 2007-09 and the first GFC, but they won’t be the basket cases that some analysts, media writers and investors suspect they will if there’s another global recession and financial crisis.
The CBA reported a solid 12% increase in full-year cash profit to $6.84 billion.
CBA shares jumped $1.94, or 4.1%, to $49.22 in early trade, but then eased to end at $48.23 up 795c or 2%, less than the 2.6% rise in the wider market.
CBA reported a near 11% rise in second half cash profits as bad-debt provisions fell about 5% from the last half of the previous year.
Cash profit for the six months to June rose to $3.5 billion, up from $3.16 billion reported a year earlier.
The bank declared a final dividend of $1.88 per share, taking the full-year dividend to $3.20 per share, up 10%
And it warned, naturally, that global financial volatility could again push up borrowing costs.
Chief executive Ralph Norris cautioned in yesterday’s statements that there was nothing to suggest "any material improvement" in the coming financial year for the banking sector which is battling subdued credit growth while battling intense competition.
"Nor is it clear what the catalyst will be for a meaningful revival in consumer and corporate confidence which is prerequisite to stronger demand for credit," Mr Norris said.
And to underline that point, consumer confidence fell for a third month in July, according to the latest Westpac/Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment survey.
The 2011 result for the CBA is the last profit delivered by Mr Norris who plans to retire in November after six years at the helm.
Ian Narev, who heads up CBA’s private and business banking arm (which did well in 2011), has been named as his successor.
The profit for the 12 months to end-June was largely in line with market expectations of $6.82 billion and compares to last year’s profit of $6.04 billion.
The CBA said net interest income rose 7% to $12.647 billion in the year to June, that’s despite the bank giving up a swag of fees and lowering some charges in reply to the moves spearheaded by the National Australia Bank.
The bank said in the statement accompanying the profit release to the ASX that the result was achieved in an environment where the impact of the recent global financial crisis continues to linger.
"Credit growth remains at historic lows, business and consumer confidence is fragile and there is significant uncertainty in global markets," the bank said.
Like the NAB and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, the CBA managed to push through a boost to net interest margins (NIM), a key driver of profit. The latest result saw average NIM of 2.19% which compares to 2.13%.
The NAB lifted its NIM to 2.32% from 2.23% in the six months to last March (a comparison wasn’t given with the third quarter of last year).
Bendigo Bank said on Monday it improved its NIM to 2.17% from 2.12% in the 2010 financial year.
Every little bit counts, so it’s no wonder these three banks have reported solid rises in profits for the latest reporting periods.
For this we can blame the extra margins added to last November’s interest rate rise.
Some of it has stuck to the bank profit margins.
