Anthony MIller
A lift in earnings at Westpac Institutional Bank as well as in Westpac’s Business and Wealth division provided a bright spot in the group’s difficult half-year result.
The bank’s net profit fell nine per cent to $3.32 billion over the March 2025 half. Return on tangible equity fell 34 bps to 11.1 per cent.
The bank highlighted a “strategic tilt to business and institutional banking.”
Total loans in business banking increased by 10 per cent over the year, and increased by 14 per cent at WIB.
WIB, once a profit powerhouse for the bank, has been languid in recent years.
The net profit of WIB lifted 11 per cent to $758 million.
But the business banking profit fell five per cent to $1.1 billion as the division wears its share of the bank’s costly technology upgrades.
This program, UNITE, won’t deliver long term benefits until 2028 or even 2029, the CEO Anthony Miller said.
The bank spent $251 million on UNITE in this half and expects to spend between $350 million and $400 million on this project in the second half.