National Australia Bank posted a less-than-expected 12.5 per cent fall in first-half earnings after clamping down on costs and set plans to cut 2,500 more jobs, sending its shares to a 3-month high.
Earnings before one-off items for the six months to March 31 fell to €975 million.
NAB already has plans to cut 1,700 jobs in Britain and already sold its two Irish banks NIB and Northern Bank. NAB said it expected "acceptable earnings growth" in the second half but below that of its major peers.
The bank is cutting a total of 4,200 staff from its Australian and British operations, or about 10 per cent of its work force as of March 31st.
The 2,500 job cuts in its Australian operations include a small number of staff based in Asia.
Australia's centre-right coalition government said it wanted a "good explanation" for the redundancies as the National was highly profitable.