By Dipo Olowookere
Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mr Yinka Sanni, has disclosed that some delinquent loans have been written off by the company.
Mr Sanni made this known while reacting to the release of the firm’s financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2018.
According to him, this was the reason behind the significant decline in the company’s non-performing loans (NPLs) ratio to 4.7 percent from 8.6 percent in December 2017.
“We have seen significant improvement in our risk asset portfolio with gross loans and advances up by 14 percent year-to-date while non-performing loans (NPL) portfolio decreased by 39 percent, thereby improving our NPL ratio to 4.7 percent from 8.6 percent in December 2017.
“The decrease in non-performing loans is on account of the declassification of some loans following positive outcome on recovery and rehabilitation efforts.
“This is coupled with strategic decision to write-off some delinquent loans,” the bank chief was quoted as saying in a statement made available to Business Post.
Also, Mr Sanni said the company plans to invest heavily on its digital platform in order to deliver end-to-end financial solutions to its customers.
During the period under review, Stanbic IBTC recorded a 2 percent drop in total customer deposits, which Mr Sanni attributed to “the competitive yield environment and continued drive to reduce cost of funds which resulted in a 25 percent decrease in expensive term deposits.”
Speaking further, the bank executive said, “Our business continued to thrive in the third quarter of 2018 amid industry-wide headwinds, bearish capital market aided by emerging market sell-off and attendant repatriation of foreign capital.
“Our performance shows steady growth in our balance sheet position, sustained improvement in revenue from fees and commissions and trading lines, though at a slower pace against a backdrop of reduced financial market volumes/trades and reduction in fee income rate particularly for our Wealth business due to the implementation of the multi-fund structure.”
Going forward, Mr Sanni said, “We are focused on delivering end-to-end financial solutions to our customers through our enhanced digital platforms as significant investment is being made to achieve this stride.
“Volume of transactions carried out on our digital platform continues to increase and we are encouraged by the robust transactional volumes from the various platforms.
“The drop in our net interest income is due to lower yield on government securities compared to the same period in 2017 but the sustained growth in loans and advances will douse the impact on net interest income line in the near term.
“We remain on track to achieve our guidance by the end of the year. Our focus for the rest of the year is to maintain the momentum in improving the quality of the asset book and to further grow our non-interest revenue line.”
Concluding, he said, “We remain well positioned and sufficiently capitalized to support future growth ambitions.”
