CBA remains focused on digital

The Commonwealth Bank will continue to invest in technology and core businesses, as higher IT costs feed into an overall rise in its expenses.

In its 2023 half-year results, chief executive Matt Comyn said that digital channels enabled th bank "to develop deeper relationships to better understand and serve our customer’s needs.”

Comyn said digital "remains central to our strategy”, with “over 8.3 million digitally-active customers, nearly a million more than two years ago.”

He said the bank is also investing in technology aimed at reducing fraud and scams targeting bank customers.

“We've been investing in technology to keep our customers safe, including real-time monitoring, fraud prevention technology, and secure banking," he said.

"We're also doing all we can to raise awareness and educate customers about the actions they can take to stay safe online.”

Comyn pointed to CBA’s latest digital features, NameCheck and CallerCheck, which the bank believes will help customers spot false billing cons and avoid mistaken payments.

He added that as the cost of living rises, “customers have now access more than $1 billion in benefits and entitlements through our benefits finder feature,” a tool developed to tip off customers to unclaimed government benefits and rebates.

The bank said its Klarna capabilities are now used in more than 60,000 stores and recorded over 1.3 million app users, while CBA’s $30 million Little Birdie startup investment recorded around 3.6 million website visits.

Innovation and investments under CBA’s venture arm, X15 Ventures, showed high customer usage, with AI shopping cashback platform Cheddar recording over 220,000 app installs.

Running the numbers

The bank reported its operating expenses reached $5.773 billion, up five percent, driven by wage and supplier inflation, higher IT costs and remediation (relating to the banking royal commission), but partly offset by productivity initiatives.

Investment spending rose two percent to $963 million, compared to $945 million at the same time last year, due to an increase in productivity and growth initiatives, IT infrastructure development, and cyber security spend.

CBA reported its IT expenses increased by six percent mainly due to inflation, increased software licensing and infrastructure costs, including increased cloud computing volumes, and higher amortisation.

Its statutory net profit after tax was $5.216 billion, up 10 percent and cash net profit after tax of $5.153 billion was nine percent higher.

Operating income was $13.593 billion, up 12 percent, driven by volume growth in our core products, a recovery in net interest margin, though partly offset by a decrease in other operating income.