Finance Bank records increase in pre-tax profit
Finance Bank records increase in pre-tax profitWritten by Joan Chirwa
FINANCE Bank Zambia Limited has announced a 36.5 per cent
in its pre-tax profit for the quarter ended September 30, 2008.
And the bank has said the contraction of liquidity on the market has necessitated an increase in lending rates to the current 21 per cent from the previous 19 per cent.
The bank’s deposits also grew to K1.1 trillion during the third quarter compared to about K1 trillion recorded in second quarter, signifying a seven per cent increase.
Loans were recorded at K512 billion in the quarter under review from K422 billion recorded in the corresponding period.
Finance Bank Zambia executive director for Corporate Banking and Marketing Noel Nkoma attributed the increase in profits to enhanced lending to several productive sectors of Zambia’s economy.
“We have increase lending to productive sectors by K30 billion every month,” Nkoma said. “The increase in deposits is attributed to benefits of investments we have made in the past months were we have opened new branches. These benefits are beginning to trickle in.”
Nkoma said the bank was on target to achieving the forecast K1.6 trillion in deposits and a profit after tax of K85 billion.
“We intend to scale up on loans and advances as well and we are expecting to hit K800 billion at the end of this year. We have also been involved in major capital financing,” Nkoma said.
And Nkoma said the increase in lending rates has resulted from tightening liquidity on the market.
“This means the cost of funds invariably goes up, it is a balancing effect. This situation has been triggered by the movement in Treasury Bills rates,” said Nkoma.
A number of commercial banks in the country recently effected an upward adjustment to their interest rates.
Labels: FINANCE BANK
posted by MrK @ 6:56 PM
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