Demerara Bank profit at $1.043B, up 6%

Chairman of DBL Yesu Persaud in his review as part of the financial statements published in yesterday’s Stabroek News said the bank “had an exceedingly good year hitting the Billion dollar mark of G$1.043B  in less than 20 years of existence. A record for the banking industry to date”.

He noted that earnings per share had risen from $2.19 to $2.32, an increase of 5.94% over the preceding year. Persaud added that the net worth of the bank has moved from $4.4B last year to $5.7B, a rise of 30%.

The published financial statements showed that even though deposits were higher over the period, interest expense was significantly less, reflective of lower interest rates. This contributed to the profit margin.

Demand deposits grew from $3.6B to $3.7B while savings rose from $16.6B to $22.3B. There was a decline in term deposits from $9.7B to $8.8B. Overall, deposits climbed from $30.1B to $35B.

Interest income for the bank rose from $1.17B to $1.28B, an increase of 9.1% while income from investments jumped by 17.4% from $974M to $1.14B.

On the other hand, interest expense on savings deposits fell from $333.4M to $315.3M. Interest expense on term deposits declined from $389.8M to $250.4M.

Loan losses net of recoveries also rose sharply from $40.4M in 2011 to 240M in 2012.

Other income also declined from $523M in 2011 to $482M last year,  leaving net interest and other income of $2.1B for 2012 compared to $1.9B last year.

Non-interest expenses were up from $512M in 2011 to $600M this year.  Taxation rose from $405M last year to $455M this year leaving profit of $1.043B for 2012 compared to $983M last year.

Meanwhile, in a press release yesterday, Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Pravinchandra Dave said that the bank has plans to expand its network including a spacious head office in the near future.