News: CBA UPDATE 1-Australia's CBA improves dividend, posts profit beat as lending picks up

(Adds details on loan deferrals, CEO statement and other metrics)

Feb 10 (Reuters) - Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) on Wednesday declared a higher dividend than from six months ago and beat first-half cash profit estimates, driven by growth in home and business lending.

Australia's largest lender declared an interim dividend of A$1.50 per share, up from the A$0.98 final dividend announced in August, although lower than last year's payout of A$2.00 per share.

Australian banks, like their peers globally, were hit severely in 2020 as near-zero interest rates and bad debt provisions due to the pandemic squeezed their margins.

However, a recent pick up in loan repayments by customers following stronger employment growth and a surge in demand for new homes due to record-low mortgage rates have helped improve the outlook for the banking sector.

Sydney-based CBA said about 25,000 home loans remained in deferral as at Jan. 31, down from 145,000 loans as at June-end last year.

"Although the outlook is positive, there are a number of health and economic risks that could dampen the pace of recovery," Chief Executive Officer Matt Comyn said in a statement.

"The low interest rate environment will continue to put pressure on our revenue."

Cash net profit after tax from continuing operations fell to A$3.89 billion ($3.01 billion) for the six months to Dec. 31, from A$4.36 billion a year earlier. It beat the average estimate of A$3.76 billion by six analysts polled by Reuters.

The bank's common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio, a closely watched measure of the bank's spare cash, rose to 12.6% at Dec. 31 from 11.8% as at Sept. 30, 2020.

($1 = 1.2927 Australian dollars)