News: WBC Australia's Westpac reports flat annual profit, lowers return target

SYDNEY, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Westpac (WBC) met expectations with a flat annual cash profit and lowered its return on equity target amid an increasingly challenging environment of lower interest rates and higher funding costs.

Australia's second-biggest bank by market value reported a cash profit of A$7.82 billion ($6 billion) for the year ended Sept. 30 on Monday, unchanged from $A7.82 billion a year earlier. The cash profit figure excludes one-offs and non-cash accounting items.

The result was in line with an average estimate of a 0.1 percent rise in cash profit from 14 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Westpac announced a final dividend of $A0.94 per share, in line with the A$0.94 it paid last year. The bank said it would lower its return on equity target to 13-14 percent from 15 percent for the medium term amid an ongoing environment of lower interest rates and higher regulatory capital requirements.

($1 = 1.3011 Australian dollars)