National Australia Bank says its New Zealand subsidiary BNZ, delivered a solid performance in the first quarter of 2012.
NAB reported a first quarter profit of $A1.6 billion, below market expectations.
Cash earnings totalled about $A1.4 billion for the quarter, 8% more than in the same period a year earlier.
NAB says BNZ continues to focus on growing deposits and keeping costs down in a slowly recovering economy, and provisioning for bad and doubtful debts fell.
It says revenue momentum was supported by higher fee income and more sales of risk management products to its business banking customers.
NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne says Australia is still suffering from the effects of a multi-speed economy, as well as weak business and consumer confidence due to ongoing global economic uncertainty.
