Bendigo and Adelaide Bank app Up Home one of many tools targeting future investors

Marnie Baker, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank managing director, has told investors the bank will double down on its business plans after revealing a $488 million statutory net profit after tax.

"Our path to becoming a bigger, better and more sustainable bank is clear," she said.

The plan - which includes finding savings in existing operations - would not compromise the banks' market position as a group aiming to feed into community prosperity, Ms Baker said.

The bank's community commitments were a key reason customers did business with it, she said.

"We also realise we need to balance this better with an increasingly sharper focus on group returns," Ms Baker said.

She told the Australian Stock Exchange total cash earnings per share were up 4.9 per cent to 89.8 cents and the total fully franked dividend was up six cents to 53 cents.

The bank is also trying to strike balances as it searches for efficiencies and draw in a new generation of customers.

Its latest mortgage app, Up Home, is the latest tool in that push.

The first group of customers recently signed up for the beta test phase, which has allowed the bank to iron out any kinks before doing a "full launch to the public".

"We've had a great amount of interest in it and quite a number of people are waiting for that to go live for the general public," Ms Baker told ACM's Bendigo Advertiser.

The bank weathered storms wrought by the pandemic, the economic reopening and inflationary pressures over the past financial year.

It has now returned to something close to a normal sphere of operation.

"Hopefully, rising interest rates will get inflation under control. Things did need to return from those record lows to a more normalised environment," the managing director said.

The bank's cash earnings rose 9.4 per cent over the year to $500.4 million over the last financial year.

It was the first time the bank had posted a result of that type over $500 million.

The bank's statutory net profit after tax dropped 6.9 per cent thanks to unrealised property revaluations in its Homesafe portfolio.

That portfolio allows older home owners to access some of the equity tied up in their homes without going into debt or being forced to downsize.

That way, they do not carry the risk of future property growth rates and increasing debts.

Ms Baker said the bank was keeping an eye on customers' needs in a rapidly changing economic environment.

They have tighter operating margins, cost of living pressures and potential wealth deterioration thanks to moderating asset prices, she said.

They increasingly need financial flexibility.

It comes at a time when the wider industry is seeing lower credit growth, competition over deposits, wage inflation and increased risks of credit defaults.

BENDIGO and Adelaide Bank has returned a $488 million statutory net profit after tax in a "challenging and competitive environment".

It represented a fall of 6.9 per cent on last year, which the bank put down to unrealised property revaluations in its Homesafe portfolio.

The nation's fifth largest bank benefitted from rising loans, deposits and customer numbers during a year marred by pandemic and then spiralling inflation.

"We have reduced costs and improved our cost to income ratio while maintaining a strong balance sheet and preserving our credit quality," managing director Marnie Baker told the Australian Stock Exchange.

"We have achieved a fourth consecutive half of positive jaws and our transformation agenda is on track."

IN OTHER NEWS:

Total income for the year increased, rising 0.4 percent to $1,709.9 million while operating expenses were down 1.1 per cent to $1,016.3 million.

Cash earnings for the year were up 9.4 percent to $500.4 million.

The Bank's Common Equity Tier 1 ratio - a key measure of financial strength - rose again this year, up 11 basis points to 9.68 percent.

Ms Baker said that was well above the prudential regulator's 'unquestionably strong' benchmark.

"The Board has declared a final dividend of 26.5 cents per share, taking the fully franked full year dividend to 53 cents per share," she said.

"This decision supports our strong capital position and business outlook, while balancing our commitment to supporting shareholders with a fair return."