COLOMBO: After completing its 75th anniversary year with a commendable achievement of Rs.20.3 billion PBT, BoC has reported Rs. 4.4 billion PBT for the 1Q 2015 by achieving a 15 percent growth over 1Q of the previous year.
Profit After Tax (PAT) stood at Rs.3.0billion resulting 15 percent growth. The Group reported Rs.4.3 billion PBT resulting in a 10 percent growth over the corresponding period of the previous year and the Bank dominates the results of the Group accounting for 96 percent of earnings and 97 percent of the Group’s assets.
PBT has mainly accelerated due to increased net interest income and fee income. The Bank has been able to achieve lower interest expenses through improved CASA mix (Current Account and Savings Account to total deposits) resulting in a 34 percent increase in net interest income over 1Q 2014. Net fee and commission income have also increased by 25 percent to Rs. 2.1 billion contributing 14 percent to total operating income.
Impairment charge on loans and advances has increased by 17 percent to Rs.3.9 billion mainly due to increase in individual impairment compared to that of the corresponding period of 2014. However, collective impairment provision showed a marginal increase of 6 percent reflecting quality of the portfolio and prudential methods adopted in credit management.
Preserving its position as the first domestic bank to achieve a trillion assets Balance Sheet the Bank’s assets grew by 5 percent to Rs.1.4 trillion as of end March 2015. Loans and advances accounted for 58 percent of the Bank’s assets base and gross loans stood at Rs.845.5 billion as at end 1Q 2015 and showed a marginal growth of 9 percent recovering from the slower credit growth that prevailed during last year. Deposits accounted for 70 percent of the Bank’s liabilities as at the end of 1Q 2015 and showed a slight decrease compared to end 2014.
As at end of 1Q 2015 the Bank’s Return on Average Assets (ROAA) ratio stood at 1.3 percent and Return on Average Equity (ROAE) ratio stood at 15.7 percent indicating slight dip compared to end 2014 mainly due to increased assets base and the Rs. 5 billion capital infusion made in December 2014.
Meanwhile cost to income ratio showed an improvement from 42 percent to 39 percent in line with the improved operational efficiencies.
The Bank’s domestic liquid asset ratio was 26.6 percent as at the end of 1Q 2015 while the off-shore liquid asset ratio was 31.7 percent. Both ratios stand well above the Central Bank’s required benchmark of 20 percent.
The Bank managed to maintain a better trade off between liquidity and interest earning assets continuously under the excess liquidity scenario which prevailed last year. Capital infusion of Rs. 5 billion and issue of Rs.8 billion debentures helped to improve Tier I and Tier II Capital Adequacy Ratios (CAR) as of end 2014. The Bank managed to sustain CAR by maintaining Tier I at 8.6 percent and Tier II at 12.4 percent levels against the Central Bank’s minimum requirements of 5 percent and 10 percent respectively.
