Commbank’s strong March quarter
The Commonwealth Bank has confirmed the strong start it has made to 2013, with a March quarter trading update revealing a statutory net profit of $1.9 billion and wealth management making a solid contribution.
The March quarter update, released on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), stated that revenue growth continued to reflect a combination of conservative business settings and modest system growth.
Dealing with divisional performance, the update said wealth management and insurance funds under administration and funds under management had each grown by 4 per cent in the quarter, benefiting from strong investment performance as global equity markets improved.
It said FirstChoice and Customer Solutions had attracted solid combined net flows of $1.1 billion, with a second consecutive quarter of strong net flows to equities.
However it said insurance premium growth had been subdued as strong momentum in general insurance and direct life had been offset by weaker wholesale risk and retail advice performance.
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