6 Nov 2012

Payment to parent by Westpac yet to be finalised

7:00 am on 6 November 2012

Westpac Bank says it's yet to finalise how much it will pay its Australian parent after its full year profit jumped 22% due to a drop in bad debts, and higher margins.

Excluding one-off charges and unrealised items, the Australian-owned bank made cash earnings of $707 million in the year to September, an increase of 22% compared with the previous year.

Westpac chief executive Peter Clare says despite cooling economic activity, the bank is doing better than its rivals.

Westpac has already paid its parent bank a half year dividend of $230 million and Mr Clare says it will pay more, though he can't say how much as it's yet to be approved by the board.

Westpac Australia's full year cash earnings rose 5% to $A6.6 billion, its third consecutive year of record profit.