Results Highlights

Profitability (before abnormal items)

		Quarter to			Half-Year to		Half-Year
		March	December	March	March	March	Change
		1999	1998	1998	1999	1998	%
	Major Contributions (before goodwill)
	Australian Financial Services	342	386	321	728	628	15.9
	Clydesdale Bank	67	95	59	162	120	35.0
	Northern Bank	43	36	39	79	75	5.3
	Yorkshire Bank	102	78	98	180	171	5.3
	National Irish Bank	13	9	9	22	21	4.8
	Bank of New Zealand	70	71	73	141	140	0.7
	Michigan National Corporation	62	63	50	125	99	26.3
	HomeSide Inc.	39	36	16	75	16	large
	Asian Group	(9)	2	5	(7)	21	large
	Group operating profit	666	724	576	1,390	1,109	25.3
	Underlying Profit	1,180	1,213	994	2,393	1,943	23.2
	Cash earnings (1)	715	775	620	1,490	1,190	25.2
	Net Interest Income	1,518	1,520	1,406	3,038	2,818	7.8
	Non Interest Income	1,088	1,167	942	2,255	1,745	29.2
	Non interest expenses	1,377	1,423	1,310	2,800	2,539	10.3
	Goodwill amortisation	49	51	44	100	81	23.5
	Charge for doubtful debts	162	128	148	290	268	8.2
	Abnormal items - (pre tax)	-	-	(212)	-	(229)	-

Balance Sheet

		As at
		March	December	September	March	March/Sept
		1999	1998	1998	1998	Change %
	Shareholders' Equity	16,053	16,462	15,764	13,529	1.8
	Total assets	254,975	256,146	251,714	233,182	1.3
	Risk weighted assets	197,333	197,815	199,476	180,208	(1.1)
	Gross loans and advances	166,364	167,107	164,062	148,927	1.4
	Total net loans, advances and acceptances	187,159	185,622	182,354	167,704	2.6
	Total deposits	164,702	163,857	158,084	146,673	4.2
	Non-accrual loans, net of specific provisions	1,022	1,060	1,067	709	(4.2)

Dividends

		March	March
		1999	1998
	Interim dividend declared: fully franked	54c	49c
	Interim dividend payout ratio - before abnormal items (2)	58.3%	63.1%
	Dividend coverage ratio no. of times - before abnormal items(2)	1.71	1.58

⁽¹⁾ Earnings excluding goodwill amortisation and abnormal items.
⁽²⁾ Based on earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders.

All figures are in A$ millions unless otherwise stated.

Performance Measurements

		Quarter to			Half-Year to
		March	December	March	March	March
		1999	1998	1998	1999	1998
	Earnings(1)
	Basic earnings per share - before abnormal items	44.3c	48.9c	40.3c	93.0c	77.9c
	- after abnormal items	44.3c	48.9c	30.5c	93.0c	67.3c
	Diluted earnings per share - before abnormal items	43.3c	47.7c	39.4c	91.3c	76.1c
	- after abnormal items	43.3c	47.7c	30.1c	91.3c	66.1c
	Return before abnormal items on average assets	1.1%	1.1%	1.0%	1.1%	1.0%
	Return before abnormal items on average shareholders' funds	16.8%	18.5%	16.8%	17.5%	16.6%
	Cash Earnings(2)
	Basic earnings per share - pre abnormal items	47.8c	52.4c	43.4c	99.9c	83.6c
	Return before abnormal items on average tangible assets	1.1%	1.2%	1.1%	1.2%	1.1%
	Return before abnormal items on average tangible shareholders' funds	22.4%	24.8%	22.4%	23.4%	21.2%
	Productivity Measures
	Underlying profit per full time equivalent employee (to nearest A$)	$101,194	$104,474	$83,857	$102,609	$81,959
	Operating profit (before abnormals) per full time equivalent employee (to nearest A$)	$57,108	$62,357	$48,593	$59,598	$46,779
	Non interest income per full time equivalent employee (to nearest A$)	$93,304	$100,512	$79,470	$96,692	$73,607
	Operating costs per full time equivalent employee (to nearest A$)	$118,088	$122,561	$110,516	$120,061	$107,099
	Net Interest Income
	Group net interest spread	2.56%	2.42%	2.46%	2.50%	2.60%
	Group net interest margin	3.09%	2.95%	3.05%	3.01%	3.14%
	Non Interest Income
	Non interest income to total net income	41.7%	43.4%	40.1%	42.6%	38.2%
	Non Interest Expenses (excl goodwill & abnormal items)
	Cost/income ratio	52.8%	53.0%	55.8%	52.9%	55.6%
	Operating costs to total assets	2.2%	2.2%	2.2%	2.2%	2.2%
	Bad and Doubtful Debts
	Total provision charge to operating profit	24.3%	17.7%	33.9%	20.9%	28.0%
	Specific provision balance to total assets		0.2%		0.2%	0.3%
	Specific provision balance to risk weighted assets		0.2%		0.2%	0.4%
	Capital
	Tier 1 ratio		6.5%		6.5%	5.8%
	Tier 2 ratio		3.0%		3.0%	3.0%
	Deductions		(0.3%)		(0.3%)	(0.3%)
	Total capital ratio		9.2%		9.2%	8.5%
	Asset Quality
	Gross non-accrual loans to gross loans and acceptances		0.8%		0.7%	0.8%
	Net non-accrual loans to risk weighted assets		0.5%		0.5%	0.4%
	Shares
	Net tangible asset backing per ordinary share		$8.70		$8.36	$7.25
	Weighted average shares on issue (000)		1,450,188		1,462,945	1,423,412

⁽¹⁾ Based on earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders.
⁽²⁾ Cash basis calculations are based on earnings attributable to ordinary shareholders and exclude goodwill and related amortisation expense.