Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly yesterday declared that loan impairments had peaked in the second half of the 2008/09 financial year and would start to move down in the current financial year.Westpac yesterday reported net profit of $3.4 billion for the year to September, down 11 per cent from the previous corresponding period.After adjustments, including a $753 tax provision related to a New Zealand High Court ruling on an amended tax assessment, the group declared cash earnings of $4.6 billion, down eight per cent on the previous year. Cash earnings were prepared on a pro forma basis to take account of the St George merger, which was completed in December 2008. Cash earnings include Westpac and St George results for the first six months of the 2008/09 years and all of the 2007/08 year.The impairment charge jumped from $931 million in 2007/08 to $3.2 billion in 2008/09. Total impaired assets to gross loans rose from 0.4 to 0.8 per cent. Earnings per share fell 39 per cent to 125.3 cents. The return on equity was 10.8 per cent, down from 23.1 per cent the previous year. The cost to income ratio came down 360 basis points to 43.4 per cent. The net interest margin rose 31 basis points to 2.38 per cent.On top of the rise in mortgage share reported earlier, the bank has a 26 per cent share of the credit card market, 23 per cent of household deposits (APRA), 21 per cent of business deposits (APRA) and 20 per cent of the wealth platform market.The retail and business banking division was the standout performer, with cash earnings up nine per cent. St George's cash earnings were down five per cent and Westpac Investment Bank's down 58 per cent; both were hit by impairment charges.The WIB impairments masked a 29 per cent increase in income from risk-management activities, foreign exchange and debt markets.Kelly said it was unlikely that WIB would have such a strong result in the current financial year.BT Financial Group's cash earnings were down eight per cent and New Zealand was down 50 per cent.Chief financial officer Phil Coffey said the bank was about 40 per cent to 50 per cent of the way through repricing its business books in St George and in the Westpac retail and business bank "and so we would expect that we can continue to appropriately price our lending for what's happening in our average cost of funds."So we would absolutely be expecting that we'd be at least maintaining our customer margins in the next 12 months."