KARACHI: Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited (SCBL) on Thursday announced a 17 per cent decline in profit after tax for the nine months period ended September 30, 2021.
The bank declared Rs9.91 billion as profit after tax during January – September 2021 as compared with Rs11.91 billion in the corresponding period of the last year.
The earnings per share of the bank also declined to Rs2.56 for the period under review as compared with Rs3.08 in the same period of the last year.
SCBL in its financial statement said that despite uncertainties surrounding COVID-19, the bank delivered a resilient financial performance with a profit before tax of Rs18.4 billion compared to Rs19.9 billion in the corresponding period last year.
The revenue of the bank fell to Rs26.56 billion during first nine months of the calendar year as compared with Rs32.07 billion in the corresponding months of the last year. The bank said that the revenue was lower by Rs5.5billion primarily due to sharp reduction in interest rates in second quarter of 2020, subdued economic activity and market volatility which impacted foreign exchange income, revaluation income on derivatives and gain on sale of securities.
Administrative costs continue to be well managed through operational efficiencies and disciplined spending with an increase of one per cent compared to same period last year.
Moreover, strong recoveries of bad debts, coupled with lower impairments as a result o a prudent risk approach led to a net release of Rs0.8 billion in year to date September 2021 compared to charge of Rs3.2 billion in the comparative period.
The bank said that all businesses have positive momentum with strong growth in underlying drivers. “This is evident from pickup in net advances, which have grown by 26 per cent since the start of this year. This was a result of targeted strategy to build profitable, high quality and sustainable portfolios,” it added.
On the liabilities side, the bank’s total deposits grew by Rs40 billion, whereas current and saving accounts grew by Rs41 billion since the start of this year and comprise 93 per cent of deposit base.
