First City Monument Bank Group (FCMB) Plc has announced an impressive unaudited result and accounts for Half year (H1) ended June 30, 2016 with 89 per cent increase in Profit After Tax (PAT).
The group reported that its PAT moved to N15.7 billion in H1 2016 from N8.3 billion in H1 2015 while Profit Before Tax (PBT) rose by 70 per cent to N16.3 billion in H1 2016 as against N9.6 billion recorded in H1 2015.
FCMB Group reported that its gross revenue closed the half year at N88.3 billion, a 14 per cent increase from N77.4 billion for the same period prior year.
Furthermore, the financial institution reported that its non-interest income increased by 110 per cent to N26 billion from N12.4 billion in H12 2015.
According to the bank, the significant increase in Non-Interest income was mainly driven by a 367 per cent year-on-year increase in foreign exchange income, from N3.9 billion in H1 2015 to N18.3 billion H1 2016.
In a statement, The Managing Director of FCMB Group Plc, Mr. Peter Obaseki, said, “Our group’s half year 2016 profit before tax came in at N16.3 billion, up 70 per cent on same period in 2015 and driven largely by treasury upsides, cost optimisation and sustained momentum in the commercial and retail banking group.
“In the second quarter, revaluation gains on realised foreign currency investments, at group-level, translated to slightly over N2 billion in revenue. The investment banking business continued to face challenges arising from the sustained lull in both equity and debt capital markets while the wealth management businesses showed consistency and resilience over the last two quarters.
“Key prudential and soundness ratios, including liquidity ratio of 35.9 per cent and capital adequacy of 16.1 per cent continue to hold-up; we expect capital to strengthen through internal capitalisation of profits in due course and other measures in line with our capital plan.”
He added that, “We see more headwinds in the second half of the year, as we enter a high inflation and interest rate environment with implications for consumers and borrowers; our overall stance will therefore be conservative while we drive up execution in the low-risk segments of the portfolio.”
Also in a statement, Group Managing Director of FCMB Ltd, Mr. Ladi Balogun, said, “The bank witnessed improved operating performance in spite of the multiple challenges faced by the economy and banking sector.
“The most significant driver of earnings growth was the N9.1billion exchange gains from our dollar balance sheet. In addition our personal and SME banking segments have exhibited resilient profit growth (in excess of 442 per cent or N7.4billion, year on year) driven by electronic banking revenue and strong customer acquisition, now at 60,000 a month. Greater cost discipline has also resulted in improved operating efficiency. Performance was otherwise dampened by a YoY increase of N9.2billion provisions for non-performing loans and other known losses,” he said.
He noted that financial institution expects its loan impairments to remain elevated in the second half of the year but would be cushioned by continued momentum in revenues and efficiency gains from cost optimisation measures taken earlier in the year.
Financial position of FCMB shows that its total assets increased by 11 per cent from N1.16 trillion as at December 31, 2015 to N1.29 trillion as at June 30, 2015.
Comments are closed.