(Reuters) – Australia’s no.3 lender Westpac Banking Corp on Monday reported a 1.4% drop in annual profit, hurt by pressure on margins from intense competition in home lending in the first half and a charge related to the sale of its life insurance unit.
Cash earnings came in at A$5.28 billion ($3.38 billion) for year ended September, compared with A$5.35 billion a year earlier and a Morgan Stanley estimate of A$5.23 billion.
Westpac declared a final dividend of 64 Australian cents per share, compared with Australian 60 cents last year.
($1 = 1.5610 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Harshita Swaminathan and Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; editing by David Evans)
