The credit crunch may be starting to restrain the profit of most businesses, but for financiers the recent climate is proving beneficial. In the year to March 2008 profits of financial corporations increased at three times the rate of profit increase of other businesses. National accounts published yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the profit of financial corporations increased by 17 per cent to $9.8 billion in the year to March 2008. Profits for non-financial corporations rose only five per cent to $59.1 billion, so either the mining boom isn't producing particularly stellar profits, or it is, and the profits of all non-financial, non-mining business in aggregate are in decline. The position appears to be that mining profits are not that stellar. The value-added contributed by mining, on a trend basis, fell by 0.5 per cent in the year to March 2008, the ABS reported. Narrowly defined, value added from mining fell by 1.5 per cent while value added from services to mining increased by 14 per cent. The value added from finance and insurance, by contrast, rocked ahead by 15 per cent over 12 months.