Results Highlights

Profitability (before abnormal items)	Three Months to			% Change	% Change
	December	September	December	Sep 98	Dec 97
	1998	1998	1997	to Dec 98	to Dec 98

Group operating profit	724	783	533	(7.5)	35.8

Underlying profit	1,213	1,196	949	1.4	27.8

Net interest income	1,520	1,565	1,412	(2.9)	7.6

Non interest income	1,167	1,148	803	1.7	45.3

Non interest expenses	1,423	1,467	1,229	(3.0)	15.8

Goodwill amortisation	51	50	37	2.0	37.8

Charge for doubtful debts	128	102	120	25.5	6.7

Abnormal items (pre tax)	-	(508)	(17)	-	-

Balance Sheet	As at
	December	September	December	% Change	% Change
	1998	1998	1997	Sep 98	Dec 97
				to Dec 98	to Dec 98

Shareholders' equity	16,462	15,764	13,883	4.4	18.6

Total assets	256,146	251,714	229,441	1.8	11.6

Risk weighted assets	197,815	199,476	171,411	(0.8)	15.4

Gross loans and advances	167,107	164,062	147,764	1.9	13.1

Total net loans, advances and acceptances	185,622	182,354	165,072	1.8	12.4

Total deposits	163,857	158,084	141,988	3.7	15.4

Non-accrual loans, net of specific provisions	1,060	1,067	644	(0.7)	64.6

Performance Measurements	Three Months to
Performance Measurements	December	September	December
	1998	1998	1997

Cost/income ratio (excl goodwill & abnormal items)	53.0%	54.1%	55.5%

Operating costs to total assets (excl goodwill & abnormal items)	2.2%	2.3%	2.1%

Non interest income to total net income	43.4%	42.3%	36.3%

Basic earnings per ordinary share - before abnormal items	48.9c	53.8c	37.7c
- after abnormal items	48.9c	30.3c	36.9c

Diluted earnings per ordinary share - before abnormal items	47.7c	52.0c	36.8c
- after abnormal items	47.7c	30.0c	36.1c

Basic earnings per ordinary share - before goodwill & abnormal items	52.4c	57.2c	40.3c

Total provision charge to operating profit	17.7%	22.9%	23.0%

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 risk asset ratio (Tier 1: 6.5%, Tier 2: 3.0%, deductions: 0.3%)	9.2%	9.2%	9.5%

Net tangible asset backing per ordinary share	$8.70	$8.24	$8.23

All figures are in A$ millions unless otherwise stated.