Stanbic IBTC, a member of Standard Bank Group, last week announced its financial results for the first quarter ended December r 31, 2020.
The bank’s gross earnings fell from 26 percent to N45.7 billion, from N61.4 billion, while its net interest income of N15.9 billion, represented a 14 percent drop.
Also, its profit after tax stood at N11.3 billion, which was a drop by 45 percent in 2020.
Gross loans and advances were up 16 percent from N655.3 billion to N762.7 billion as at December 31, 2020, while total assets increased by three percent to N2.569 trillion as against the N2.486 trillion realized in December 2020.
Commenting on the results, the Chief Executive Stanbic IBTC, Dr.Demola Sogunle, said: “The domestic economy remains quite fragile. Negative real returns prevailed in the first quarter as headline inflation continued on the rise, currently above 18 percent as of March 2021.
“Economic activities are expected to improve as the authorities take on appropriate actions and business confidence improves. Just recently, in April 2021, the CBN resumed dollar sales to foreign portfolio investors for the first time since December 2020 to clear the backlog of foreign exchange demand.”
According to him, the group’s profitability in Q1 moderated year-on-year due to pressure on trading income trading activities.
“Operating expenses from regulatory induced charges increased, as well as the continued pressure on risk asset yields. The decline was partly cushioned by the year-on-year improvement in net fee and commission revenue as well as an impairment write back of N155 million in Q1 2021 compared to the charge of N1.97 billion in the prior year.
“The impairment write back was due to releases and after write-off recoveries achieved during the quarter. Again, the diversity of our earnings proved supportive during the period. Wealth’s profitability improved from the prior period and provided succour for the contraction in the profitability of the corporate and investment banking and the personal and business banking businesses,” Sogunle said.
