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Republic Bank rakes in $5.9 billion in pre-tax profits
Republic Bank Limited, one of the more popular commercial banks in Guyana, has recorded a profit of $5.974B before taxation for their financial year which ended on September 30, 2019.
According to the bank’s annual report of 2019, it recorded a “satisfactory performance” which was buoyed by Guyana’s expanding business sector, competitive financial environment and expectations of economic growth.
Profit after taxation amounted to $3.84B representing a 22.7% increase over the prior year.
Earnings per stock unit amounted to $12.82, an increase from $10.45 in 2018. The Board of Directors recommended a final dividend of $3.58 (per stock unit), which, if approved at their Annual General Meeting, will bring the total dividend for the year to $1.55B.
In the previous year, the total dividend amounted to $1,285B.
In his Chairman’s economic review, Nigel Baptiste explained, “The banking system’s net domestic credit increased by 15.7% due to increased credit to both the public and private sectors. Private sector growth was recorded at 4.2% compared to December 2017.
Notably, there were increases in most sectors of the economy, with exceptions being manufacturing, construction and engineering and the “other” category of the private sector.
He went on to say that the net domestic credit of the banking system grew by 14.1%, half year on half year. This was as a result of increases in both loans and advances in the private and public sectors.
Loans and advances to the private sector expanded by 5.7% directly linked to all sectors except the agriculture sector. Lending to households recorded a robust growth of 13.5% year on year.
Furthermore, net Public Sector Credit also increased considerably by 48.7%, half year on half year. The ratio of non-performing loans stood at 12:3 at the end of the first quarter of 2019—as at half-year, the ratio showed decline compared to the last two years.
The overall deficit in 2019 is projected to decrease by 0.1% point to 4.9% of the GDP. At the end of June 2019, Guyana’s stock of total public debt increased marginally by 1.5% compared with the 2018 half-year position.
Even while the Republic Bank seems to be doing well in the financial aspect, such cannot be said the same for their banking services to customers. It was only a few days ago that the agency came under fire from its customers, the government and the Central Bank for faults in their “upgraded system”.
For almost three weeks, thousands of their customers suffered in the lines at the ATMs and in the bank, which has several branches across the country.
Customers complained of being unable to access accounts. Quite a number of them were saved using their ATM cards at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) terminals.
Guyana’s Central Bank was engaged in exploring ways of sanctioning the bank over the plethora of problems experienced by customers. However, the regulator is without legal standing and instead had to opt for moral persuasion.
Governor of the Central Bank , Dr. Gobind Ganga said while the bank will be looking to have the affected customers compensated by the Trinidad and Tobago (T&T)-based Republic Bank, the regulator will be looking to have legislation in place to avoid such a reoccurrence.
Further, he stated that the authorities were still assessing the total losses and economic impact of the software glitch.
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