NAB has lifted its first half profit due to higher earnings from personal banking. Source: AAP
NATIONAL Australia Bank has beaten market expectations with a first half profit of $2.92 billion.
Higher earnings from personal banking, due to growing numbers of home loans and stronger margins on those loans, was a main factor behind the profit growth, it said.
NAB's cash profit, the industry's preferred measure of performance, was up three per cent in the six months to March 31, from $2.83 billion in the same period in the previous year.
Analysts had expected a cash profit of about $2.89 billion.
The bank's net profit rose by 23 per cent from the previous first half, a period that included large losses from NAB's troubled UK businesses, to $2.52 billion.
"NAB has delivered a solid March half year result, with continued growth in the Australian and New Zealand businesses and a stronger balance sheet," chief executive Cameron Clyne said in a statement.
He provided no outlook for the bank, but said its recently updated business strategy and technology upgrade would improve customer service, reduce errors and cut costs.
As part of those measures, NAB cut 668 full-time workers in the six months to March 31, taking its full-time workforce to 42,668.
NAB's result takes the combined cash profits made by the big four banks in the first six months of their fiscal years to $13.4 billion.
NAB posted the smallest cash profit of the big four, and the weakest growth.
Its shares opened lower on Thursday, down 42 cents to $32.95 at 1019 AEST.
"The NAB results were expected to be solid and it has managed to deliver this," IG market strategist Evan Lucas said.
"However, considering market expectations after stellar results from ANZ and (Westpac), this might be taken as a disappointment.
"Once more NAB is playing catch up - every time the bank takes a good step forward, its peers continue to skip away."
NAB bank declared a fully-franked interim dividend of 93 cents per share, up from 90 cents at the same time last year.
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