Australia's Westpac posts nearly 3% rise in first-half profit

Westpac Banking

04/05/2026 22:40

May 5 (Reuters) - Westpac Banking Corp WBC.AX reported a 2.9% rise in its first-half net profit on Tuesday, helped by growth in business lending volumes and decreasing costs from the prior half.

The country's second-largest mortgage lender said its net profit after tax was A$3.41 billion ($2.44 billion) for the six months ended March 31, compared with A$3.32 billion reported a year earlier.

That missed the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$3.47 billion.

($1 = 1.3951 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri & Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

 ((Rajasik.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com;))