Billions in Profit

Banks and their CEOs have never made more money. How much is too much?

Last year, the big four Australian banks made a lot. How much?

• The Westpac group struggled by with A$3.4 billion in 2009.

• Commonwealth Bank (ASB in NZ) raked in A$2.9 billion.

• ANZ (which also owns National Bank in NZ) enjoyed A$2.9 billion, too.

• And NAB/BNZ clocked up A$2.6 billion.

That’s $32 million a day. More than a million dollars an hour. $22,000 a minute. $374 a second, every second of the day, 365 days a year.

And the people who run the banks? Well, they have plenty of digits on their pay packets, too. The gap between what CEO’s make and what the average worker makes has never been bigger.

But that’s not news to you. You’re struggling to pay your mortgage, while Westpac CEO Gail Kelly has bought the most expensive property ever in a swish Sydney suburb by the sea. It was $9 million. Not even a year’s salary and bonus for her.

Finance workers aren’t opposed to banks making profit, of course. But we do question how the profits got so big, whether it’s good for Australian and New Zealand families, and how much is too much?