NATIONAL Australia Bank has lifted its full-year profit 2.5 per cent to $6.642 billion.

The lender says cash profit for the 12 months to September 30 rose from $6.483 billion a year earlier on the back of a 2.7 per cent rise in revenue — with growth in both housing and business lending.

The result was in line with analyst expectations and NAB held its final dividend flat at 99 cents, fully franked.

At the same time the company has announced 6000 jobs losses by 2020.

News Corp understands the majority of the jobs losses will be in the company’s head offices in Sydney and Melbourne.

The bank said it was part of a $1.5 billion restructure that will simplify its business, as expenses rose by 2.6 per cent. As part of the technology transformation, 2000 new roles will be created.

Statutory profit rose from 2016’s impairment-heavy $352 million to $5.285 billion, with the overall result in line with analyst expectations.

“Throughout this process we will treat our people with care and respect and equip them for the future,” NAB said in a statement.

“We are reshaping our workforce to enable us to deliver for our customers and by FY20 expect to create up to 2000 new jobs while about 6000 roles will be impacted as we further automate and simplify our business.”

NAB have employed the services of a consultant who helped Holden workers after the announcement of the closure of the car maker’s Adelaide factory.

Chief executive Andrew Thorburn said the changes would involved halving the number of products offered by the bank and reducing the layers of management.

We’re helping our people prepare for the future with our best-practice career transition program The Bridge. https://t.co/nSZm2tA2ep pic.twitter.com/Ax5XnsVS1E — NAB (@NAB) November 1, 2017

“We have made strong progress over the past three years and now we announce an acceleration of our strategy. This involves an estimated $1.5 billion increase in investment by the end of FY20 to further improve the experience for our customers, reshape our workforce and grow our bank,” Mr Thorburn said.

“The 6000 comes over three years and as we invest these sums of money to simplify the business. It’s going to simplify the bank dramatically, and as we do that we are going to need fewer people,”

NAB expects to make a one-off impairment as a result of the restructure of between $500 million and $800 million in the first half of the 2018 financial year.

Nonetheless, NAB said, there should be no cut to its dividend for at least the current financial year.

NAB held its final dividend flat at 99 cents, fully franked, taking it to a full-year payout of $1.98.

NAB’S NUMBERS

* Cash profit up 2.5pct to $6.642b

* Net profit $5.285b v $352m

* Net operating income up 2.7pct to $17.895b

* Final dividend flat at 99 cents, fully franked