Commonwealth Bank of Australia Posts 3Q Net Profit of A$2.6 Billion

By Alice Uribe

SYDNEY--Commonwealth Bank of Australia posted a rise in third-quarter profit, driven by strength in its retail bank, amid intense competition in the mortgage market

The bank, Australia's biggest by market value and the country's largest mortgage lender, reported an unaudited statutory net profit of 2.6 billion Australian dollars (US$1.76 billion) for the January-March quarter.

It was up 1% on the 1H FY 2023 quarterly average, and 10% higher on the proper comparative quarter.

Cash earnings--the measure followed by analysts that strips out items including hedging volatility and losses or gains on acquisitions and asset sales--totalled A$2.6 billion.

For 3Q, net interest income was 2% lower, which CBA attributed to volume growth being offset by lower net interest margins primarily from continued competitive pressure in home loan pricing and customers switching to higher yielding deposits.

"Competition for home loans has remained intense in Australia and New Zealand," said CBA.

CBA reported a common equity tier 1 (level 2) ratio of 12.1%, which its said was well above the regulator's minimum regulatory requirement of 10.25%

Write to Alice Uribe at alice.uribe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2023 18:09 ET (22:09 GMT)

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