Aussie banks worth more than Europe's combined by: By Lucy Kippist From: news.com.au August 18, 2012 4:15pm
European banks are drowning but Australian banks are swimming in cash.
FOR the first time in history the value of Australian banks are now worth more than the Eurozone.
The Commonwealth Bank made a net profit of almost $7.1 billion, the biggest ever reported by an Australian bank. That boils down to a daily profit of almost $19.5 million or more than $13,000 a minute.
ANZ posted a $4.4 billion profit for the nine months to June, an increase of 10 per cent.
CBA chief executive Ian Narev told the Adelaide Advertiser that he is “proud and not embarrassed” by the massive profit surge. He said the results boil down to strong Australian economy and the confidence of their shareholders.
“The people who own this group. . . 60 per cent of them are Australian households directly, that's 800,000 Australian families,
“Another 20 per cent of our shareholders are Australians who own them directly through their pension funds.
“So the shareholders who we are doing well for are millions and millions of Australian households,” said Mr Narev.
ANZ's Australian, New Zealand and Asian operations, chief executive Mike Smith told news.com.au the group attributes their success to effective management of ongoing funding and competitive pressures. He also said ANZ had picked up market share in deposits, mortgages and business lending
Other financial analysts have said the massive profits can be explained by the fact that unlike European and American banks, Australia have not loaded up on subprime debt, bad real estate loans or “piles of dodgy foreign debt”.
