01 November 2012 7:06am

National Australia Bank suffered a 28 per cent fall in net profit over the past year. As a result of a sharp increase in its charge for bad and doubtful debts, the bank's net profit fell from A$5.2 billion in 2010/11 to $4.1 billion in the year to September.

The bank's bad debt charge rose 43.5 per cent, from $1.8 billion to $2.6 billion.

Net operating income rose 3.6 per cent on the previous year to $18.2 billion. Income in the September half was up only 0.1 per cent on the first half.

Return on equity fell from 15.2 per cent to 14.2 per cent.

The average net...