Westpac profits up, bad debt down
By
Tim Neary
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17/02/2010 12:00:00 AM
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2
comments
Westpac has topped expectations with a first quarter cash profit of $1.6 billion due to halved bad debt charges and above industry growth in home lending.
The bank is emerging as one of the best-placed lenders after the financial crisis thanks to its increased scale and strength in mortgages, reported The Australian Financial Review.
Chief executive Gail Kelly cautioned that there were still threats looming for Australian banks "in this uncertain world".
Global markets are not fully recovered, the average cost of funding is still going up and a regulatory reform agenda is still to emerge," she said.
However, emphasising that Westpac was in strong shape, Kelly said the first-quarter result provided clear signs of an improved Australian economy.
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Latest Comments
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Pardon Me - broker on
17 Feb 2010 01:06 PM
Is Westpac full of very clever lenders , to see profits up and Bad debts down probably ius the answer though a gutsy move with an increase in margins probably helped especially in the commercial loan book !!!
Does this mean that broker commissions are not the problem to profit that this bank believed they would be.
Can see a return to previous commissions levels that are apparently should be able to be sustained!!!
Will the MFAA and aggregators take up this cause, not a hope while the likes of Westpac & CBA keep throwing in major sponsorship dollars( soft commission) dollars for their conferences.
should the MFAA and aggregators decline those sponsorship dollars _ YES
Broker on
17 Feb 2010 03:26 PM
Of course the MFAA should decline sponsorships from the banks, but the sad reality is that the banks the are the pimps, and the MFAA are the umm, workers!
How the MFAA will justify their sad & sorry existence post ASIC licensing is anybodies guess, but no doubt the banks will find some way of securing the MFAA’s future, some things are far from being right within this industry, and the MFAA is an obvious one that put simply needs to be culled at the earliest opportunity, I can arrange my own game of golf thanks!