“This first half of the year has seen a challenging economic backdrop. Despite the decline in investment markets, our business is well positioned with a robust balance sheet that will help us to drive forward through a period of continued economic uncertainty,” she said.

“AMP is entering its next era as a significantly simplified group, leading in wealth management and banking, and guided by a clear purpose.”

UBS analysts said their first impressions of AMP’s results were mixed. While operating trends remained weak, they said they thought the market would like the earlier-than-expected capital return.

“Whilst core business results remain disappointing, the capital return announcement is earlier than expected, albeit only $350 million of the $1.1 billion earmarked will be conducted this year (via on-market buyback),” they said in a note.

“Underlying earnings are below our forecast and contain evidence of ongoing revenue margin squeeze and rising cost ratios in both wealth and bank.”

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AMP Bank’s residential mortgage book grew by $705 million and credit quality remained strong, but the company said the net interest margin of 1.32 per cent (down from 1.62 in the last financial last year) reflected competitive rates and customer preference towards lower margin fixed rates loans.

The net interest margin improved in the second quarter of the year, and is expected to keep improving given rising interest rates.

George said the AMP Bank plans to launch a new digital mortgage later this year, which will enable unconditional mortgage approval in as little as 10 minutes.

In AMP’s wealth management arm, assets under management decreased to $126.3 billion, compared with $142.3 billion in the 2021 financial year. The company attributed this to negative investment market returns.