The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) share price dropped 0.41% today after the ASX bank share announced a significant decision regarding its branch network.
The Australian banking landscape has changed significantly in the past decade or two. Online banking has reduced customer demand for branches because customers can do almost everything digitally.
The larger banks of CBA, Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB), and ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) all have large branch networks across the country, which comes with significant costs.
While there was no guarantee of any particular branch numbers, CBA has committed a significant investment in its regional branch network.
CBA announced it's extending its existing commitment to regional Australia. All regional branches will remain open until at least 31 July 2027.
The ASX bank share also said that as part of maintaining Australia's largest banking presence, CBA will invest $100 million in upgrading its branches and ATM fleet. Commonwealth Bank believes this commitment will ensure it continues to offer the largest branch network in Australia and offers reassurance to regional communities.
CBA said:
We're actively and directly communicating with community leaders across Australia so we can serve and support our regional retail and business customers with their banking needs, as well as help familiarise communities with the full range of banking services available to them.
The ASX bank share is due to hand in its FY25 half-year results tomorrow for the six months to 31 December 2024.
Investors will get to see how much profit the bank made, the dividend the board decided on, and how the loans arrears are going.
According to reporting by The Australian, UBS thinks the valuation of banks is now quite expensive.
The broker noted that bank valuations are more than two standard deviations above their historical averages, so it'll require very strong results and earnings per share (EPS) upgrades to justify the current CBA share price. The UBS analyst John Storey said:
Feedback from domestic clients on the Australian bank equity story for 2025 is that it is mostly about relative positioning, in the context of banks vs resource, which in turn feeds off a China, US dollar, and commodity narrative.
He suggested that Australian banks continue to offer stable and predictable earnings and dividends, despite the low growth.
Banks are now trading at an average two-year forward price-earnings (P/E) ratio multiple of almost 20, compared to a 10-year average of 12.9 times.
In the past year, the CBA share price has risen by 40%.
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