Retail Banking

The regional Retail Financial Services Divisions include the business, agribusiness and consumer financial services retailers, as well as cards, payments and leasing units together with supporting Customer Service and Operations. These operate in Australia, Europe and New Zealand. They exclude Wealth Management, Corporate & Institutional Banking and Other (including Excess Capital, Group Funding & Corporate Centre). The regional financial services businesses aim to develop long-term relationships with their customers by providing products and services that consistently meet the full financial needs of customers.

Performance Summary

	Year to			Fav/(unfav) change on Sep 02
	Sep 03 $m	Sep 02 $m		%	Ex FX(1) %
Net interest income	6,538	6,289		4.0	5.0
Other operating income (2)	3,229	3,091		4.5	5.2
Total income	9,767	9,380		4.1	5.1
FSE pension fund expense	(93)	(28)		large	large
Other operating expenses(2)	(4,622)	(4,543)		(1.7)	(2.7)
Underlying profit	5,052	4,809		5.1	5.9
Charge to provide for doubtful debts	(573)	(519)		(10.4)	(12.9)
Cash earnings before tax	4,479	4,290		4.4	5.1
Income tax expense	(1,369)	(1,310)		(4.5)	(5.3)
Cash earnings before significant items	3,110	2,980		4.4	5.0

	Half year to			Fav/(unfav) change on Mar 03
	Sep 03 $m	Mar 03 $m		%	Ex FX(1) %
Net interest income	3,261	3,277		(0.5)	3.4
Other operating income (2)	1,609	1,620		(0.7)	2.7
Total income	4,870	4,897		(0.6)	3.1
FSE pension fund expense	(53)	(40)		(32.5)	(45.0)
Other operating expenses(2)	(2,323)	(2,299)		(1.0)	(4.8)
Underlying profit	2,494	2,558		(2.5)	0.9
Charge to provide for doubtful debts	(275)	(298)		7.7	3.7
Cash earnings before tax	2,219	2,260		(1.8)	1.6
Income tax expense	(680)	(689)		1.3	(1.9)
Cash earnings before significant items	1,539	1,571		(2.0)	1.4

⁽¹⁾ Change expressed at constant foreign exchange rates.
⁽²⁾ Retail Banking is the sum of total Financial Services Australia, Financial Services Europe and Financial Services New Zealand, gross of inter-divisional eliminations.