The fourth horseman thundered across the financial landscape yesterday, a discreet distance behind his three compatriots, who each paid their respects last week.

While they have yet to openly portray themselves as harbingers of the Last Judgment, there's no denying each of our big four bankers are making profits of biblical proportions.

Sir Ralph Norris is an affable kind of fellow ordinarily, except when his salary is mentioned in the newspaper, and probably would take great exception to being likened to the Pale Rider, or Death, as he is known in the Book of Revelation.

But his pronouncements yesterday were delivered with an unmistakable aura of invincibility. Like his biblical equivalent, he is the one rider needing no weapon other than the financial juggernaut which follows in his wake.

The Commonwealth Bank reported a $1.7 billion profit for the March quarter. That would be roughly 13 weeks. That would be close to $130 million each week.

It was only a decade ago that the Commonwealth took a full year to earn profit of such magnitude, which back then was hailed as a stupendous achievement.

With a full quarter to go, CBA this year has already piled up $5 billion in profits in its vault, making it a certainty to outstrip last year's $6.1 billion bonanza.

And still, the analysts and most commentators were taken in by the usual assortment of dire warnings about a bleak future that now routinely accompany such results.

Four horsemen come, laden with big profits