- Cash Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) of $681 million for FY18, up 18% on prior year
- NPAT growth reflects higher total banking income and lower operating and loan impairment expenses
- Operating performance of $1,028 million, up 11% on prior year
- Operating expenses of $748 million, down 1% on prior year
- Total banking income of $1,776 million, up 6% on prior year, driven by growth in home and business lending balances and other banking income
- Loan Impairment Expense (LIE) of $54 million ($99 million in FY17), reflecting improvement in quality of both the home loan and commercial lending books.
Commenting on the results, Bankwest Managing Director Rowan Munchenberg said:
“Bankwest has delivered a strong financial result in a year of significant change, contrasting economic conditions on the east and west coasts and a challenging external environment.
“This result is a testament to our amazing colleagues, who have embraced new ways of working and new technologies to ensure we continue to meet rapidly changing customer needs.
“We’ve made some difficult but important choices about where we invest, but we believe our digital and broker focus will enable us to meet the needs of more customers across Australia.
“Our performance also enabled us to continue our support for the communities in which we live and work and our colleagues were heavily involved in that contribution throughout the year.
“The Western Australian economy is showing signs of recovery, but we also expect challenging economic conditions to continue in WA in the short term.”
Year-on-year highlights included:
- 4% home loan balance growth, slightly behind the national growth rate of 6%, reflecting continued economic challenges in WA
- 4% business loan balance growth, despite a challenging WA economy and mainly due to a demand for credit from existing customers
- 6% increase in transaction deposit balances, driven by our continued focus on improving customer experience across all channels
- 2% growth in Main Financial Institution (MFI) customers.
Notes to editors
All figures relate to 2017-18 Financial Year (July 1 2017 to June 30 2018).
Meeting changing customer needs
- We are committed to delivering amazing service to our 1.1 million customers across Australia, including 564,000 in WA
- We launched Australia’s first payment ring, the Bankwest Halo, which was named Most Innovative Retail Banking Product and Most Innovative Card Product at the RFI Australian Retail Banking Awards
- Our Australia-based customer contact centre was increased to 24/7 operations, servicing about 1.5 million calls
- Our one-stop-shop broker portal was named a finalist for Most Effective Digital Presence in the 2018 Australian Mortgage Awards, to be held in October
- We introduced cross-device messaging that allows customers to begin conversations on one device, such as a home computer, and continue on another, such as mobile
- We made it possible for customers to open an Easy Transaction Account within the Bankwest mobile app in just a few minutes.
Fostering a diverse and inclusive culture
- We introduced new ways of working and deployed new multi-functional teams using agile working methods to deliver rapid, iterative improvements to customer experiences
- We are proud to employ about 3800 people nationally, including about 3100 in WA
- We had 2644 colleagues volunteer almost 10,000 hours of service to the community, while 619 blood donations were made to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service
- We were recognised as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) for the third consecutive year
- We were recognised as a Silver Tier Employer for LGBTI inclusion at the Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) Awards.
Supporting prosperous communities and economy
- We paid $350 million in state and federal taxes
- Our suppliers and partners included about 800 small and medium sized-businesses
- We helped 42,775 people buy a new home, including 6,552 first home buyers
- We invested about $4.3 million in the community and awarded 592 Easy Grants across the country, including 495 in WA
- Our partnership with the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) continued to produce economic insights and analysis to support policy makers in creating sustained economic growth in WA.
For more information contact:
Russell Yeo
Bankwest Senior Manager, Media & Communications
0421 637 028
russell.yeo@bankwest.com.au
Glen Foreman
Bankwest Senior Manager, Media & Communications
0412 421 002
glen.foreman@bankwest.com.au
About Bankwest
Bankwest provides personal and business banking solutions for more than 1.1 million retail and business customers across Australia. Bankwest customers enjoy access to an extensive network of stores and business centres, direct and third party distribution channels, agencies and electronic banking facilities, as well as 24-hour telephone and internet banking. Bankwest is a division of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
