CBA says is one of the best capitalised banks in world
27 Mar 2009 4:20 PM
SYDNEY, March 27 AAP - Australia's biggest lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd says it is one of the most strongly capitalised banks in the world, which will position it well despite the worsening economic slowdown.
CBA chief executive Ralph Norris said in a presentation in Hong Kong that the bank had completed its funding for the full year to June and had $82 billion of liquid assets, enough to meet maturing wholesale debt for six months, according to a slide presentation.
CBA is one of the 12 AA rated banks in the world, together with the other three `big four' Australian banks.
Still, Mr Norris said the bank was cautious about the short to medium-term outlook for the Australian economy, which will continue to slow with broad customer impacts.
The government's actions to stimulate the economy had softened the impact of the slowdown, according to the slides.
The bank said 59 per cent of its funding was now from deposits while its wholesale funding was diversified with an average maturity of 3.4 years.
CBA's impairment's had deteriorated only modestly, mostly because of a small number of single name exposures, including ABC Learning.
CBA is Australia's biggest home lender with 23.3 per cent of the market as of December 31 and the biggest household deposit holder with 32.6 per cent of the market.
Mr Norris's presentation was made to a Credit Suisse investment conference in Hong Kong on Friday.
CBA closed up 25 cents at $35.00
