Bankwest has posted a massive profit turnaround as its loan book quality improves.

The CBA subsidiary has announced a full-year cash profit of $463m, reversing the $45m loss it posted the previous year. Bankwest attributed the result to an 86% decline in loan impairment expenses.

While the company posted only a 1% rise in lending for the year, it claimed that this was due to improved home lending being offset by the run-off of low quality business lending.

Bankwest parent company, Commonwealth Bank, yesterday announced a full-year cash profit of $6.84bn.