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CBA books $11 billion profit as hardship arrangements climb to 147,000
Australia’s biggest bank has reported an increase in repayment assistance for struggling customers, as higher interest rates and cost-of-living pressures continue to weigh on households.
- Australia’s biggest bank lifted its annual cash profit 7% to $10.98 billion, up from 4% growth a year earlier.
- Repayment relief rose alongside it, with CBA striking 147,000 hardship arrangements with struggling customers.
- The bank is leaning harder on AI to fight scams, as the union counts 1,000 jobs lost this year.
Commonwealth Bank on Wednesday reported a roughly 6 per cent increase in repayment relief arrangements for customers facing hardship last financial year, while posting almost $11 billion in profit.
CEO Matt Comyn told shareholders at CBA’s annual general meeting that cash net profit after tax rose 7 per cent to $10.98 billion in FY26, compared with growth of 4 per cent a year earlier.
The bank set up 147,000 payment arrangements for customers in “financial difficulty” over the year, about 8,000 more than the 139,000-plus it arranged in FY25.
“The impact of higher interest rates and cost of living pressures has not been shared evenly, and for some households it has become harder, not easier, as the year has gone on.”
One in three Australians and one in four Australian businesses call CBA their main financial institution, Comyn said, making its results a gauge of how households are coping with higher rates and cost-of-living pressure.
Comyn said it was the first major Australian bank in 15 years to grow at or above the market in all five of its core businesses, from home loans to business deposits.
Shareholders will get a fully franked final dividend of $2.70, taking the full-year payout to $5.05, up from $4.85.
Chair Paul O’Malley said the bank returned $8.3 billion to shareholders, an amount spread across more than 14 million Australians who own its shares directly or through super.
AI investments amid job cuts
AI is becoming “an increasingly important part” of how CBA detects harmful and suspicious activity, Comyn said.
Since last August, the bank’s human-sounding AI bots have held more than 350,000 call and message conversations with scammers to disrupt them in real time.
CBA’s growing use of AI comes amid a series of job cuts, including around 300 roles in February and another 120 in April.
The Finance Sector Union, which represents bank workers and is negotiating a new enterprise agreement with CBA, says the cuts have since reached 1,000 this year.
The latest round came in September, when around 232 staff were told their roles would be gone by the end of the year, more than 172 of them in technology jobs in New South Wales.
“These savage job cuts confirm that there will never be a profit margin big enough to satisfy Australia’s richest bank,” FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said at the time.
“Some tasks will change, some roles will evolve, and new roles will emerge,” Comyn told shareholders at the AGM, while mentioning the bank’s $90 million program.
Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, CBA put forward an improved offer giving its lowest-paid workers a 13% rise over three years, which the union called the “highest pay outcome in the banking sector,” along with extra leave and an AI committee, subject to a staff vote.
The Money Edition has approached CBA for comment.
Topics: Banks, Commonwealth Bank