A central pillar of the “unquestionably strong” status of Australia’s big banks are the buffers carried on their balance sheets. These provisions for losses are shock absorbers for when the economy hits the wall.
So with conditions deteriorating – Canva slashed jobs, administrators were called in to David Jones – the level of provisioning for rising bad debts emerged as the key issue as Westpac and National Australia Bank briefed investors on their full-year results this week.
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