NAB reports 4 percent profit rise, maintains dividend

(Adds details, quotes from CEO)

SYDNEY, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 27 (Reuters) - National Australia Bank (NAB) posted a 4 percent annual cash profit and maintained its final dividend after streamlining its portfolio by selling assets in the United Kingdom and United States.

NAB reported a cash profit of A$6.48 billion ($4.95 billion)for the year ended Sept. 30, up from A$6.22 billion a year earlier, restated to reflect the sale of 80 percent of its life insurance business. The cash profit figure excludes one-offs and non-cash accounting items.

The result was above an average estimate of 3 percent growth in cash profit from 15 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) I/B/E/S.

The final dividend of A$0.99 was steady. Analysts had forecast it would fall by 4 percent to A$0.95.

NAB is Australia's fourth-largest bank by market value and the first of three of the "Big Four" banks that will report full-year results over the next two weeks.

Under Chief Executive Andrew Thorburn, NAB has withdrawn from underperforming businesses in the United Kingdom and United States. It also sold 80 percent of its life insurance business to Japan's Nippon Life for A$2.4 billion this month.

"This is the first time in my 12 years at the bank we are able to focus exclusively on the Australia/New Zealand business," Thorburn told media on Thursday. "I think that bodes well for the performance in the future."

The results come at a time when all of the Big Four banks, which account for 80 percent of lending in Australia, have been under fire for abuse of market power following a series of scandals involving misleading financial advice, insurance fraud and interest-rate rigging. ($1 = 1.3079 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and James Dalgleish)