Bank reports K271mil profit

THE Bank South Pacific group recorded a profit after tax of K217.7 million for the first quarter of this year – a 1.8 per cent increase on the result for the same period in the last financial year.
Chief executive officer Robin Fleming told the group’s annual general meeting shareholder presentation on Friday that the profit grew slightly amid the Covid-19 impact in the first quarter.
He said the full impacts of the Covid-19 did not emerge on customers until April.
Fleming noted that loan repayment deferral packages and reduced lending rates had been employed, with the latter coming at some cost to BSP.
“Our Covid-19 customer support initiatives will come at some cost to BSP and we will be continually assessing their impacts and exploring ways to minimise their effects on financial performance, but not to the detriment of future growth,” he said.
“BSP is providing over 5,500 Covid-19 impacted customers with loan repayment deferrals.”
The group’s income for the first quarter declined by 4 per cent from the prior quarter.
Expenditure increased by 7.1 per cent over the prior quarter and 2.1 per cent year on year driven by the banking system upgrade.
Meanwhile, the bank’s cost-to-income ratio remained low at 40 per cent.
Digital activity increased in first quarter of 2020 representing over three-quarters of total transactions per month in the first quarter, a 20 per cent increase over the prior year.