Republic Bank (Guyana) has recorded an after-tax profit of $1.8B for the financial year, $262 million over last year’s figure.
According to the Bank’s recently released Annual Report, during the year which ended on September 30, it recorded a 2.06% Return on Assets and a Return on Equity of 25.89%. The Bank also saw its earnings per share increase from $5.20 to $6.07. The Report said “prudent risk management, sound investment and lending decisions and rigid cost controls were largely responsible for the excellent performance in the context of the present global financial crises.”
Managing Director Edwin Gooding in his report said “The Bank has achieved another commendable performance, recording growth in both our asset base and profitability in a year characterised by the uncertainties which lingers on after the crises in the global financial system.” Gooding said too the Bank focused much of its attention on its key objectives of “ensuring a consistently high level of customer satisfaction and employee engagement, growing our revenues and controlling our costs while maintaining our leadership position in corporate social responsibility.” According to him, this is done through the Power to Make a Difference, Republic Bank’s signature Social Investment Initiative.
In 2009, the Bank incurred expenses of $91.18M related to loan-loss provisioning against a write-back of $17.56M enjoyed in 2008.
According to the Report, “this reversal in performance is due to the Bank adopting a very prudent position especially on its unsecured consumer lending portfolio.” Recoveries on loans that were previously written-off amounted to $132.04M in 2009. In 2008, the Bank recorded $103.12M in this category.
For the year, the Bank received $1.01B in interest paid on deposits-a figure that is lower than the $1.33B recorded in 2008. The report credited this result to a “conservative approach to deposit pricing and growth because of the limited lending and investment opportunities.”
According to the Report, other income, which amounted to $1.79B and contributed 24.75% to total income, exceeded the 2008 amount of $1.59 billion by $197 million or 12.40%. Further, foreign exchange trading resulted in gains of $1.132B, an increase of $112M from last year. Exchange earnings continue to be the main source of the other income, contributing 63.38% of the total, the Report noted.
The Report also stated that net interest and other income grew by $1B or 19.22% to $6.20B in 2009 compared to the $ 5.20B generated in 2008.
Additionally, the Report said operating expenses for the company increased by $516M from the previous year to $ 3.19B. “This increase is significantly higher than that experienced in 2008 (over 2007) of $172M, and is linked to efforts at restructuring its operations, as well the increasing operating costs which the Bank has had to contend with year-on-year, and a prudential provision on a recent fraud committed at one of its branches.” The Bank noted that staff costs amounted to $1.45B, which accounted for 45.50% of total operating expenses. This figure represents an increase of $78.5M from the 2008 expenditure.
Republic Bank (Guyana) Ltd is a subsidiary of Republic Bank Ltd (RBL) and by extension a member of the Republic Group.
