ECONOMYNEXT – Profits at Sri Lanka’s Commercial Bank of Ceylon grew 111 percent from a year ago to 7.9 billion rupees in the June 2024 quarter helped by higher net interest income despite higher bad loan provisioning, interim accounts show.
The bank reported earnings of 5.92 rupees per share for the quarter.
Commercial Bank group net interest income went up 67 percent to 30.9 billion rupees even as interest income fell 8 percent to 68.9 billion rupees and interest expense fell at a faster 33 percent to 34.9 billion rupees.
Net fee and commission income grew 4.8 percent to 5.4 billion rupees.
Losses from trading were 1.7 billion rupees, down from 6.6 billion a year earlier.
Loans and advances to customers were up 4.8 percent to 1,233 billion rupees, amid an expansion in foreign currency loans.
Stage 3 bad loans were 4.87 percent, down from 5.85 percent.
Financial assets – debt instruments were down 4.6 percent to 620 billion rupees.
Deposits grew only 2.1 percent to 2,190 billion rupees in the first six months of 2024, despite the appreciation of Rupee against the Dollar, the Bank said.
Total assets grew by 1.31 percent to 2,690 billion rupees.
Tier I capital was 11.59 percent while total capital ratio was 15.1 percent by June 30 against required 10 and 14 percent. (Colombo/August 14/2024)