Commbank delivers record dividend

wealth-management-business/commonwealth-bank/insurance/financial-services-sector/institutional-investors/chief-executive/interest-rates/

13 February 2008
| By Mike Taylor |

The performance of the Commonwealth Bank’s wealth management business has helped drive a record interim dividend of $1.13 fully franked on the back cash net profit after tax of $2,385 million for the six months ended December 31.

The bank said that the wealth management business had delivered a strong result with a 27 per cent increase in cash net profit after tax to $380 million, and funds under administration had increased 24 per cent to $200 billion, “driven by the success of the FirstChoice platform, cash mandates from institutional investors and good investment performance”.

It said that CommInsure generated strong personal life and general insurance sales, with the latter having been driven by a significant improvement in cross-sell rates.

Commenting on the bank’s performance, chief executive Ralph Norris said he was satisfied with the result in what had been a difficult environment for the financial services sector.

However, looking over the horizon, the bank said that the increased volatility in global financial markets that had characterised the first half of the group’s financial year was expected to continue until at least the end of the current financial year as the full impacts of the sub-prime crisis flowed through to the market.

It said for the Australian economy this was likely to mean that wholesale funding costs would remain above levels experienced in the 2007 financial year and inflation would continue to be a concern.

The bank said this was expected to lead to further upward pressure on interest rates.

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

1 month 3 weeks ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months ago

Entireti has unveiled the new name for the AMP financial advice businesses that it acquired last year....

4 weeks ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

2 weeks 5 days ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

1 week 4 days ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS