Quarterly Bank Earnings Growth – Comparing NAB to ANZ

Following on from ANZ’s trading update last week, NAB reported its June quarter trading update today. NAB reported 9 per cent growth in cash earnings for the quarter to A$1.75 billion. This appeared to comfortably beat ANZ’s cash earnings growth of 4 per cent for the same quarter. However, there were a number of notable quality differences in the period. The first was in terms of provisioning. ANZ noted that its collective provision charge increased due to balance sheet growth and an increase in provisioning for the resources and agricultural sectors. This resulted in a 49 per cent increase in ANZ’s bad debt provisioning for the quarter to A$366 million. When you look beneath the surface at the earnings NAB reported as being a “good quarterly result with continuing momentum” and strip out low quality adjustments, one offs, and equity dilution, underlying EPS has actually fallen relative to the June quarter last year. Maybe NAB needs a little more take and a little less give. READ THE FULL POST HERE: (VIEW LINK)