Solid half for The Rock

Profits and business volumes at The Rock Building Society are improving for the first time in several years. Yesterday, the Rockhampton-based entity said it expects to report a "normalised underlying profit" for the year to June 2011 of A$5.2 million - up from $4.7 million in 2010.

The headline profit will be lower given various one-off items.

The society said deposit growth in the half-year to June was up seven per cent, and home loans increased by 5.5 per cent.

The Rock also announced the sale of its commercial and rural insurance business to Regional Insurance Brokers, for $3.25 million, yesterday, realising a pre-tax profit of $1.4 million.

It will also convert its household insurance broking business into an agency arrangement.

Stuart McDonald, The Rock's chief executive, put the improvement down to sharpened pricing, mainly on fixed-rate loans sold through brokers, aimed at drumming up demand. It also improved pricing on deposits sold through its branch network, mainly in regional Queensland.