The embattled lender got some cheer with a broadly stronger set of financial numbers for its full financial year period, ending in June.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the lender hit last week by claims it breached anti-money laundering and terrorism financing rules, has produced happier news by reporting net profit after tax, on a statutory basis, of A$9.928 billion ($7.84 billion) for the financial year period ending 30 June, a gain of 7.6 per cent. 

On a cash basis, net profit after tax rose 4.6 per cent year-on-year to A$9.881 billion. Media reports said the result was slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations. 

The bank logged an earnings per share in cash terms of A$5.74 per share. 

Its CET1 – common equity – measure of capital strength, an international measure of banks’ financial resilience, was 15.6 per cent in the latest financial year, up from 14.4 per cent in the previous 12 months, CBA said in a statement yesterday. 

Business, private banking
At CBA’s business and private banking arm, its cash net profit after tax in the 12 months to 30 June stood at A$1.639 billion, a gain from A$1.522 a year earlier. In wealth management, profit dipped, however, to A$553 million from A$612 million. 

As far as assets under management were concerned, they rose to A4210.929 billion, up from A$202 billion in the previous period. The bank had A$152.999 billion in funds under administration, a gain from A$144.913 billion, it said.

The bank said it is in talks with “third parties in relation to their potential interest in our life insurance businesses in Australia and New Zealand”. The outcome of those discussions is uncertain; there may be a divestment of those firms but a range of options are being considered, it said, adding no further details. 

Breach allegations
The bank has been hit with claims about AML and terrorism finance rule breaches. Earlier in August, Australia’s financial intelligence and regulatory agency, AUSTRAC, has kicked off civil penalty proceedings against Commonwealth Bank of Australia for "serious and systemic non-compliance" with rules to stop money laundering and terrorism finance. AUSTRAC alleges that the bank failed to report suspicious matters either on time or at all involving transactions totalling over A$77 million ($61.2 million).

As reported here on 4 August, CBA said in a statement: "We have been in discussions with AUSTRAC for an extended period and have cooperated fully with their requests. Over the same period we have worked to continuously improve our compliance and have kept AUSTRAC abreast of those efforts, which will continue," the bank said in a statement. "We take our regulatory obligations extremely seriously and we are one of the largest reporters to AUSTRAC. On an annual basis we report over four million transactions to AUSTRAC in an effort to identify and combat any suspicious activity as quickly and efficiently as we can."