Commonwealth Bank posts record $10.25bn profit and reveals plan to clamp down on coal lending | Banking

Commonwealth Bank has posted a record cash profit while announcing it will cut off lending to coal companies without net zero emissions plans.

Australia’s biggest bank recorded $10.25bn in annual cash profits for the year to June – a 4% lift on the previous year – and delivered a bumper $2.60 payout per share to shareholders.

CBA announced the results in its 2025 annual report on Wednesday alongside its updated environment and social policies, where it revealed it would impose further climate requirements on coalmining clients.

Thermal coalminers will not be permitted to borrow from the bank unless they are aiming to reach net zero emissions by 2050, with CBA imposing further decarbonisation and transparency requirements.

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The industry had access to about $660m in lending facilities with CBA in 2023 and 2024, the bank said. About $1.2bn of CBA finance was exposed to the thermal coal industry at the end of June.

CBA has imposed energy transition plan requirements on oil and gas companies and producers of the other main black coal product, metallurgical coal, since 2023.

Heightened requirements for lending would make it much harder for coal companies to borrow from the bank, according to Morgan Pickett, an analyst at climate advocacy group Market Forces.

“Australia’s biggest bank has officially ended any new finance for coal, whether for power or making steel, unless it’s proven to be compatible with a safe and livable climate,” Pickett said.

“It’s another nail in the coffin for coal.”

Tighter restrictions on coal lending came after Australian households took out an additional $34bn in home loans, up 7% from June 2024 to June 2025. Personal loans also picked up by $400m and business lending rose $16bn over the year.

The share of customers behind on home loan payments by 90 days or more rose to 0.7% over the first half of 2025, but CBA said that had now stopped rising.

Easing pressure on mortgage holders helped the bank save $76m, with impaired or unpaid loans costing CBA $726m in the year to June, down from the previous year’s $802m.

More customers are ahead on their minimum monthly loan repayments, with the share rising to 85% in June compared with just under 80% the previous year.

“Pleasingly, many households have seen a rise in disposable incomes due to the recent relief from reduced interest rates, lower inflation and tax cuts,” CBA’s chief executive, Matt Comyn, said.

Households deposited an additional $34bn in CBA accounts over the year to June, with savings deposits up 10% over the year and transaction account deposits, which do not receive interest, up 11%.

The gap between the interest CBA pays deposit holders and the interest it receives from borrowers widened to a net interest margin of 2.08%, supporting the record profits.

However, household and business customers saw the gap between loans and deposits narrow over the year, by 0.03 and 0.04 percentage points respectively, which the report attributed to increased competition with other banks to offer better mortgage and savings interest rates.

Alan Docherty, CBA’s chief financial officer, said nearly 90% of savers with conditional rate account were getting the full interest rate.

The bank delivered shareholders a dividend payout of $2.60 per share, to a total of $4.85 over the last 12 months, up from the $4.65 it paid in 2024, which will be paid to more than 800,000 direct shareholders.

Investors sold out of the bank after results were published, sending the price falling from nearly $178 to $169, which if sustained could be the stock’s biggest one-day fall since early 2023.

The value of CBA shares had risen greatly over the year to August, from $134 a year ago to a peak of $191 in June. Analysts have persistently said it is overvalued, UBS earlier in August saying the stock’s underlying value was closer to $120.