Commonwealth Bank of Australia reports record $10.98 billion profit

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) reported a record cash net profit after tax of $10.98 billion for its fiscal year, representing a 7.1% increase over the previous year. Despite the record profit, the bank noted a slight slip in net interest margin to 2.05%, driven by mortgage competition and rising operating expenses, which grew 5.8% to $13.755 billion.

CBA's New Zealand subsidiary, ASB, experienced a 4% decline in net profit after tax to $1.398 billion for the June year. Executives attributed the performance shift in the second half of the year to rising swap rates and intense competitive pricing pressure in the New Zealand home loan market. CBA leadership noted that some New Zealand banks are willing to originate loans at very low margins due to high turnover rates in the fixed-rate market.