SYDNEY, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The Australian banking giant National Australia Bank (NAB) had posted a statutory net profit of 2.55 billion Australian dollars (1.89 U.S. billion), the 2017 first half results showed on Thursday.
On a cash earnings basis, the bank logged a healthy 3.29 billion Australian dollar result, up 2.3 percent on the comparable period last year, with total revenues increasing by 1.8 percent while this was somewhat offset by their expenditure which increased by 0.8 percent for the period.
Andrew Thorburn, group chief executive officer of the NAB which is of one of Australia's four major banking institutions, said in a statement obtained by Xinhua on Thursday that this result was "solid" and "reflects improving momentum on our strategy".
"Revenue is up, our asset quality remains sound and we have further strengthened our funding and capital positions," Thorburn said.
"Cost growth has moderated from 2017 first quarter levels as our productivity initiatives gain traction. Our return on equity of 14 percent reflects our disciplined approach to capital allocation."
This comes after the first quarter results from the banking giant showed a 5 percent increase in expenses, which included the cost of redundancies of 488 staff in the first quarter as part of the Australian bank's broader restructuring strategy.
However in their half yearly filings, the bank contended that the increase in their expenses in the period will be "partially offset" by productivity savings.
Thorburn said that the bank will continue a shift to "reshape" the business, which will involve servicing more of their customers digitally and should result in greater efficiencies across the board.
"In the first half of 2017 we achieved 102 million Australian dollars of productivity savings against an annual target of greater than 200 million Australian dollars," Thorburn said.
"We remain confident of achieving positive 'jaws' over the full year as a number of initiatives gain further traction during the second half of the year."
The NAB will pay shareholders a fully franked interim dividend of 99 cents per share.
