The company isn't paying a dividend but will immediately begin a $350 million on-market share buyback. It has further resolved to return another $750 million to shareholders via a special dividend or further on-market share buyback, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.
"We're pleased to be able to deliver on this commitment to our shareholders," chief executive Alexis George said.
AMP also announced on Thursday that its first-half underlying net profit was down 24.5 per cent to $117 million, compared to a year ago.
Ms George said that was the result of both a more challenging economic environment and deliberate actions that AMP took to reprice its wealth management offerings and better set it up for longer-term success.
The slimmed-down company is focusing on being a leading wealth management and banking business in Australia and New Zealand following the roughly $2 billion in sales of its various Collimate Capital business, formerly known as AMP Capital.
It is also using $400 million from the sales to pay down debt.
Ms George said that AMP Bank had had a controlled launch of its digital mortgage product, which offers approvals in as little as 10 minutes, with a full launch planned for later this year.
The challenger bank's residential mortgage book grew by $705 million to $22.4 billion in the first half, which Ms George attributed to services improvements and competitive pricing.
Ms George joined AMP as CEO last year, charged with revitalising the company after the 2019 banking royal condition uncovered a string of scandals.
At 12.04pm AEST on Thursday AMP shares, which earlier had been up by more than one per cent, had slid into negative territory. They were down 0.3 per cent to $1.162.
15°C