CommSec paid a bumper dividend to CBA

Full-year accounts for Commonwealth Securities provide a few scraps of data on the trajectory of CBA's ever-improving stockbroking arm.

CommSec generated brokerage revenue of $196 million in the year to June 2009, down by 21 per cent, and consistent with the lower volumes in late 2008 and early 2009 thanks to the financial crisis.

Management fee revenue paid by the bank, however, generates most of CommSec's revenue, and this was $429 million over the year.

CommSec reported a profit of $146 million in 2009, down from $170 million in 2008.

CBA chose to extract a very large dividend from CommSec, on an accrual basis, of $287 million in 2009, up from $80 million in 2008. This reduced retained profits by two thirds and cut the equity in CommSec to $457 million at June 2009.

On a cash basis (given the delayed payment of the 2008 dividend) CommSec handed over $387 million to CBA in the last financial year.

The firm said it had 1.63 million accounts at June 2009, up by five per cent on 2008.

The directors' report at the front of the accounts continues to describe CommSec as a "non-advisory stockbroking service", even though management is busy recruiting additional analysts to build up its service on the sell-side.