National Australia Bank, the country's biggest lender by assets, has reported an 8% rise in first-quarter unaudited cash profit on better lending volumes and stronger results from its wealth division.
NAB posted unaudited cash earnings of A$1.7 billion ($1.21 billion) for the quarter ended December 31.
It did not give a year-ago comparison in its trading update, which does not provide as much detail as a full earnings statement.
NAB has long trailed its three main rivals - Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ Banking Group - on earnings growth and shareholder returns.
But under new CEO Andrew Thorburn it is trying to increase focus on its more profitable home market.
Earlier this month, it successfully spun off its British arm Clydesdale Bank by listing it on the London stock market after Thorburn made exiting from the UK a priority.
Late last year, NAB sold 80% of its life insurance business to Nippon Life, marking its last major divestment of low-returning legacy assets.
Investment in priority segments is delivering improving results," Thorburn said in a statement.
NAB posted a 2% rise in revenues while charges for bad and doubtful debts for the quarter fell 52% to $84m, driven by lower charges in Australian banking.
The bank has a Tier-I capital ratio of 10.1% as of December 31 but it estimates the ratio to drop by 49 basis points to 9.6% due to the overall impact of the demerger and IPO of Clydesdale Bank.
