NAB Announces $5.5 Billion Record Profit

National Australia Bank (ASX:NAB) have announced their full year profit of $5.5 billion: an increase of 19.2 percent. The increased profit was from an increase in mortgage sales, an increase in business lending and a drop in bad debts.

NAB have declared a final dividend, distributing 88 cents per share, fully franked. The dividend was 4 cents higher than the interim dividend and totals $1.72 for the full year dividend.

The bank had also cut 347 jobs in personal banking, 337 jobs in wholesale and 379 jobs in its British banking units, with the positions being slashed due to outsourcing of IT work to IBM.

NAB chief executive Cameron Clyne said, "This is a good result. We are in a much better position than we have been in and we can control the things that we can control."