Westpac (WBC) lifted cash earnings 8% to a record $7.628 billion for the year to September and has boosted final dividend two cents a share to 92 cents.
The higher profit came thanks to improvements in the banks operations, such as its Australian banking business and wealth management.
But as with the NAB, the BBA and the ANZ, the big driver was another fall in impairment charges, down 23% or $197 million.
The bank joined its peers in the Commonwealth and ANZ in reporting solid profit rises for the 2013-14 financial years, but the NAB went against the grain, reporting a 10% drop because of an increase in the provision for UK insurance miss-selling and other losses which totalled $1.3 billion.
Westpac’s higher final dividend takes the year’s full payout to $1.82 a share, up 5%.
The bank’s cost to income ratio was an unchanged 42.9 cents in the dollar, which while the net interest margin fell 7 points to 2.08 cents in dollar.
Westpac said group deposits rose 7% or $27 billion over the year to $409 billion. Australian housing loans rose 7% over the year as well.
The acquisition of some of the the Lloyds business in Australia added $64 million to cash earnings for the year, Westpac said.
