Highlights of the CBA result

As always, there's a smorgasbord of profit measures in a big bank results pack, and whether profit went up or down or was better or worse tends to be more in the mind of the observer than in the published data.

Underlying profit, before loan losses, tax and minority interests at Commonwealth Bank increased eight per cent over the half year and seven per cent over the full year to $3.63 billion.

Pre-tax profit increased six per cent over six months and three per cent over twelve months.

Cash profit, which is CBA's preferred profit measure, increased seven per cent over six months and four per cent over twelve.

And the statutory net profit increased four per cent to $2.37 billion over the half year and increased by eight per cent over the full year.

Return on equity measured on a cash basis fell to 20.8 per cent in the December 2007 half year from 21.0 per cent in the June 2007 half year and 22.6 per cent in the December 2006 half year.

Return on assets was steady at 1.05 over six months but down from 1.16 per cent 12 months ago.

Earnings per share on a cash basis increased to 177.9 cents in the December 2007 half from 168.1 cents in the June 2007 half and 172.7 cents in the December 2006 half.

The cost to income ratio moved to 48.4 per cent from 46.9 per cent six months ago and compared with 48.6 per cent 12 months ago.