Westpac’s Bank Performance Analysis

Executive Summary

This report will aim to highlight the profitability of National Australia Bank (NAB) and Westpac in terms of Return on Equity (ROE) between 2003 and 2007. Using a Dupont analysis, ROE will be decomposed into Return on Assets (ROA) and the Equity Multiplier (EM). Additionally, it will further look at the various risk exposures that these banks may face such as credit risk, liquidity risk, capital risk and operational risk. Furthermore, this report will also compare the performance and risk exposures between the two banks over the past 5 years.

Westpac’s Bank Performance Analysis

ROE

Figure 1 summarizes Westpac’s Return on Equity (ROE) from 2003 through to 2007, which is one of the key determinants of profitability. Generally, one can observe an upward trend in value throughout the past 5 years, starting at 15.65% in 2003 and finishing at 21.98% in 2007. Furthermore, ROE has increased by a total of 6.33% over the last 5 years, averaging 1.5825% per year. From a shareholder’s perspective, it can be viewed that Westpac has performed consistently well and has been more profitable throughout the specified period. In order to further analyze Westpac’s increasing trend in terms of its ROE, it is essential to conduct a Du Pont analysis that decomposes ROE into specific sub-sections.

ROA

A major sub-section of the ROE is the Return on Assets (ROA), which shows the proportion of net income in terms of average total assets. Figure 2 expresses the trend in Westpac’s ROA over the past 5 years. This has increased gradually from 2003 to 2006, starting at 1.04% and ending up at 1.22%. However, from