Politicians have been out there bashing banks again with CBA’s announcement of a record $9.45 billion profit. Of course if the bank keeps up with inflation it will be a record, and because it’s a big company it will be ‘fat’.

The table in the AFR gives the profit as $9.247 billion as against $9.084 billion last year. The true measure is in net earnings per share (eps) which came in at 542.5 cents, actually down from 553.7 cents last year. That’s a drop of about 2%.

The final dividend was maintained at $2.22 per share, so shareholders breathed a sigh of relief that it didn’t go down.

Bill Shorten’s comment was ignorant, and I think disgraceful: Continue reading Fat bank profits →