ANZ, which has made a number of large changes to its operations over the past year, reported a rise in profits for the six months to the end of March.

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, which has slimmed down operations with disposals including Asian wealth management, yesterday reported a statutory after-tax profits of A$2.9 billion ($2.2 billion) for the half-year to 31 March, a rise of 6 per cent.

The lender also reported a cash profit of A$3.4 billion, a 23 per cent year-on-year increase, it said in a statement yesterday. 

ANZ’s Common Equity Tier 1 Capital Ratio – a measure of a bank’s financial strength under interanational capital adequacy rules - was 10.1 per cent, at 31 March 2017 up 52 basis points (bps) from 30 September 2016. 

The results show the “further benefits from a significant reshaping of the business driven by ANZ’s strategic focus to create a simpler, better capitalised and more balanced bank”, ANZ said.

Last year, ANZ sold its Asian private banking and retail businesses to Singapore-headquartered DBS, part of a pattern of M&A deals involving wealth management entities in the Asia-Pacific region.