(Reuters) - Australian mid-sized lender Bendigo and Adelaide Bank <BEN.AX> posted a 6.6% fall in annual cash earnings on Monday, citing higher remediation costs and losses for its reverse-mortgage unit Homesafe due to falling house prices.
Australia's residential property market has slumped amid tighter lending conditions, higher taxes on foreign buyers and an apartment glut, putting a drag on consumer spending.
That has increased pressure on Homesafe, which is based on the reverse-mortgage loan model - where homeowners draw down the equity in their homes in exchange for cash.
The company also said it had incurred remediation costs of A$16.7 million ($11.3 million) for the year, including legal bills in relation to misconduct revealed by a public inquiry into financial sector wrongdoing last year.
For the 12 months ended June 30, cash earnings - which exclude one-off gains or losses - fell to A$415.7 million from A$445.1 million a year ago.
Net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability that measures the difference between interest paid on deposits and earned on loans, remained unchanged at 2.36%.
The bank maintained its final dividend at 35 Australian cents per share.
(Reporting by Shriya Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin and Stephen Coates)
