Macquarie Group is on target to report full-year earnings growth for the first time since 2010. Macquarie's chief executive, Nicholas Moore, told an investor briefing yesterday that profit for the year to March would be about 10 per cent higher than last year's result.Macquarie was hit hard by the financial crisis and its aftermath. After hitting an earnings peak of A$1.8 billion in 2007/08, net profit fell to $871 million the following year. It staged a recovery, to $1.05 billion, in 2009/10, but this fell again, to $956 million, in 2010/11.Last year, Macquarie reported a net profit of $730 million, its lowest result since 2004. A 10 per cent increase earnings, which is dependent on the continuation of strong market conditions, would still leave the group well short of its glory days.Moore said the group's annuity businesses - Macquarie Funds, Banking and Financial Services, and Corporate and Asset Finance - performed well in the second half.Its markets-facing business continued to face subdued conditions. "Market conditions have shown some signs of improvement but client activity remains subdued for capital markets-facing businesses," Moore said.Among the group's highlights in recent months, Moore said that Corporate and Asset Finance had expanded its leasing business in Europe, with the acquisition of a European rail-leasing platform. It had also entered the independent contract-hire market for motor vehicles in the United Kingdom.In Banking and Financial Services, mortgage lending grew above system for the first time since the financial crisis. Macquarie acquired an 8.3 per cent stake in mortgage company Yellow Brick Road and signed a product distribution agreement with YBR.Macquarie Capital got some deals off the ground, including an AMP Capital shopping centre transaction, as well as China Gas's defence of an unsolicited bid, and the initial public offering of the Macquarie Mexican Real Estate Investment Trust.The group maintained its strong capital position, with a $3.3 billion surplus over its minimum regulatory capital requirement.