The fall in earnings followed a series of one-off issues including a writedown of goodwill, the integration costs following its takeover of ME Bank, remedial actions and restructuring costs.

Investors dumped the stock this morning and its share price slumped 4 per cent.

Despite the fall, the bank’s total income of $1.7 billion was up 5 per cent on 2022, but its margins were down because of increased competition in lending and higher funding costs.

Operating expenses shot up 8 per cent, which it attributed to inflation and wage increases as well as investment in technology. Deposits were also up strongly for the year.

You might like

Archive

Knight’s Choice wins the 2024 Melbourne Cup

Archive

‘Vile’ neo-Nazi protesters climb Indigenous sacred site

The bank will pay a final dividend of 21 cents a share, fully franked.

BoQ said that as pressure grew in the mortgage market, management decided to moderate growth where economic returns could not be achieved. This resulted in a contraction in mortgage lending.

Managing director Patrick Allaway said the board recognised it had been a tough year for shareholders. Its shares are down 15 per cent on a year ago. Allaway said the company accepted it was accountable for operational risk failings that led to two court-enforceable undertakings.

“Our results reflect the market cycle and the business transformation. We continue to invest through the cycle and traded some performance in full-year 2023 for medium to long-term benefits,” he said.

“We have a high conviction in our strategy and a clear roadmap in place to deliver a stronger, simpler, digitally enabled, low-cost bank with exceptional customer experience.

“We are committed to addressing our challenges head on and our transformation is progressing at pace with key milestones achieved in 2023.”