Banks Earn Billions Thanks To Higher Interest Rates
ANZ, NAB and Westpac all reported higher interest income in FY23
2 min
Westpac, ANZ and National Australia Bank have reported their full-year results over the past fortnight, delivering billions in profits and splashing out boosted dividends to their shareholders.
Following 13 interest rate rises from the Reserve Bank since May 2022, all three of the big four banks reported a lift in their net interest income, which is the difference between the interest income they earned on loans less the interest they paid on customers’ savings deposits.
Rising interest rates mean the banks can charge more interest on existing and new loans. But they also have to pay higher interest on their wholesale funding to fund new loans, plus they have to pay a higher interest rate to customers with savings accounts. So, the Reserve Bank’s 13 rate rises did not go wholly and directly to the banks’ bottom lines.
In fact, all three banks reported that their business and institutional divisions produced the best results in FY23 – not their home loan divisions. But this is cold comfort to the millions of Australians whose home loan repayments have gone up exponentially over the past two years.
Here is a review of each bank’s full-year results for the 12 months ending 30 September.
Westpac
Westpac reported a 7% increase in net interest income to $18,317 million and a 26% increase in statutory net profit after tax (NPAT) to $7,195 million. The bank declared a final fully franked dividend of 72 cents per share, bringing its full-year dividend to 142 cents per share, up 14% on FY22. Westpac also announced a $1.5 billion share buyback.
National Australia Bank
NAB reported a 13.2% increase in net interest income to $16,807 million and a 7.6% boost to NPAT at $7.414 million. The bank announced a fully franked final dividend of 84 cents per share, which brought its full-year dividend to 167 cents per share, up 11% on FY22.
ANZ
ANZ reported net interest income of $16,581 million, up 11%, and statutory NPAT of $7,098 million, down 0.3%. The bank declared a final dividend of 94 cents per share, comprising 81 cents with 65% franking and a one-off unfranked dividend of 13 cents. This brought its full-year dividend to 175 cents per share, up 20% on FY22.
The Commonwealth Bank reports on a different cycle to the three smaller players within Australia’s ‘big four’.
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The Federal Budget may have softened some of its proposed tax reforms, but it has exposed a bigger issue: too many families are relying on wealth structures that no longer reflect the realities of modern life.
3 min
For many Australians, the 2026 Federal Budget initially felt like a direct challenge to the way wealth is created, held and transferred between generations.
The headlines were immediate: changes to capital gains tax, reforms to discretionary trusts, restrictions on negative gearing and increased scrutiny of investment structures. Unsurprisingly, affluent families, business owners and investors began asking the same question:
Is the way we hold our wealth still fit for purpose?
In recent days, the government has announced several significant amendments following industry consultation and public feedback, including exempting testamentary trusts from the proposed 30 per cent minimum tax and expanding capital gains tax concessions for small businesses.
The backdown is welcome. But it also highlights something much bigger.
This Budget has accelerated a conversation that many Australian families have been postponing for years.
The conversation is not really about tax. It is about wealth stewardship.
For decades, Australians have built wealth through businesses, property, investments and careful long-term planning. Yet many families have not revisited the legal structures surrounding those assets in years, sometimes decades.
We often see clients who have spent years building significant wealth, only to discover their legal arrangements no longer reflect their current circumstances.
Their children are now adults. They may own multiple properties.
They may have sold a business, entered a second marriage, become grandparents or accumulated digital assets that did not exist when their original estate plans were prepared.
The trust that distributes income may need to be reconsidered. The bucket company may no longer be so attractive.
The Budget has simply exposed a reality that already existed: wealth structures cannot remain static while life continues to evolve.
Importantly, trusts themselves are not the issue.
Trusts are legitimate planning tools that provide flexibility, protection and continuity. When used appropriately, they allow families to adapt to changing circumstances over time.
And neither is tax the issue, really. Getting the fundamentals right is more important for long-term, sustainable wealth than a few favourable tax treatments around the edges.
The real issue is complacency.
Too often, families create structures and assume the job is done. It isn’t.
Estate planning is no longer a document you sign once and file away in a drawer. It is an ongoing process that should evolve alongside your life.
We are also seeing a broader shift in how Australians define wealth itself. It is no longer just the family home and an investment portfolio.
Modern wealth includes businesses, digital assets, cryptocurrency, intellectual property, frequent flyer points and increasingly complex family arrangements.
At the same time, Australians are living longer than ever before, meaning wealth may need to support multiple generations simultaneously. This creates new responsibilities and new risks.
How do you help your children enter the property market without exposing family wealth to relationship breakdowns?
How do you structure wealth so that it remains a source of opportunity rather than future conflict?
These are the questions families should be asking now.
The recent debate surrounding testamentary trusts also serves as an important reminder that policy decisions can have unintended consequences for vulnerable Australians. It is encouraging that the government has listened to feedback and clarified its position.
But the lesson remains: the wealth landscape is changing.
Increasingly, governments, regulators and tax authorities are paying closer attention to how wealth is held and transferred. That means families cannot afford to adopt a “set-and-forget” approach to their structures.
The families who will be best placed for the future are not necessarily those with the greatest wealth.
They are the families with the greatest clarity. Clarity around ownership, succession and governance. And clarity around how wealth will transition from one generation to the next.
Ultimately, preserving wealth is not about avoiding change.
It is about preparing for it.
Because the greatest risk is not change itself.
It is losing the ability to respond to it.
Anthony Hunt is Co-Founder of Wealth Lawyers and former COO of Westpac Private Bank. He advises business owners, investors and affluent Australian families on wealth protection, succession planning and intergenerational wealth transfer
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