Empty pockets: BOQ limps home with a puny $4m profit, tough times flagged
Bank of Queensland has posted a first half of profit of just $4 million after writedowns and provisions announced earlier this week of $260 million.
BoQ posted a net profit of $4 million. Photo: ABC
Investors were handed a reduced dividend of 20 cents a share and managing director Patrick Allaway said the bank was in a challenging economic cycle.
But significantly, the bank said cash earnings of $256 million after tax was supported by tailwinds “which has materially reduced over the last two and half months”. It also anticipated margin compression.
The bank revealed there was now stiff competition for mortgages and deposits.
Total income was up 9 per cent, net interest income increased 12 per cent and non-interest income was down 22 per cent.
“We expect to see heightened more competition continuing as well as escalated deposit competition due to term funding facility refinancing with interim margin compression aniticpated,” the bank said in its outlook.
Allaway said the bank was in a strong position.
“We are well positioned to continue to invest in our transformation to deliver a stronger and simpler low-cost, digitally enabled bank,” he said.
“We have made significant progress since announcing our strategy in 2020 across digitisation, improving our strategic position through the ME Bank acquisition, achieving growth across our brands and strengthening our financial resilience.”
