Investec Bank Australia suffered a A$71.6 million loss in the year to March 2012, after clearing out the bulk of its property development book.As a result of sales and write-offs, the value of default loans in the bank's run-off book has fallen from $372 million in March last year to just $69 million a year later.Investec finance director Alan Chonowitz said $40 million of the book was property development finance and it was fully provisioned."If we have more losses on that book it will be marginal," Chonowitz said.Investec put its property loans into a "non-core" business after the global financial crisis. This business lost $126.8 million in the year to March.The bank's core business made a profit of $25.1 million, down from $$51 million in 2010/11.The group lost $101.7 million, but claimed a tax benefit of $30.1 million to get to the bottom line loss of $71.6 million. Chonowitz said the fall in core earnings was due to costs associated with a diversification strategy the bank embarked on a couple of years ago, as well as some timing issues with cash flows on deals.The investment banking division lost $5.5 million.The bank's strategy has been to shift the balance of its revenue base from interest to non-interest income. It has been developing its resources business and specialist asset finance business (with a focus on aircraft leasing), as well as establishing a renewable energy fund.It is adding to its professional finance business and, in the next few months, will launch transaction banking services and credit cards to cater to this market.Chonowitz said the bank's profit figures looked "lousy" but its balance sheet was in good shape, as a result of the restructuring.The core liquidity ratio is 35.7 per cent and Tier 1 capital adequacy is 13.6 per cent. Deposits and wholesale funding have increased by seven per cent.