Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) reported its quarterly profit for the three months to 31 March 2018 on Wednesday. Since then, the share price has fallen from $73.51 to $71.57, which is a fall of around 2.5%, according to Yahoo! Finance.
Australian banks prefer to report cash net profit as the key statistic because it removes some items from official accounting profit.
Commonwealth Bank reported that its third-quarter cash profit was 2% lower than the first half’s average quarter profit and 9% lower on an ‘underlying’ basis. CBA’s underlying profit excludes a $375 million allowance for a penalty from AUSTRAC, the money laundering watchdog.
Of particular note, CBA reported the percentage of consumers who are in arrears on their loans for more than 90 days.
According to Commonwealth Bank, the percentage of home loans in arrears has increased from 0.47% in December 2015 to 0.60% in June 2017. By the end of March 2018, the figure grew to 0.65%.
CBA commented on the increased arrears, saying the figure was influenced by: “a small number of customers experiencing difficulties with rising essential costs and limited income growth”.
It might not sound like much but with official interest rates at record lows and house prices powering ahead in recent years, investors may be concerned the Aussie housing boom is cooling down.
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