NTB March earnings up on tax removals
Biz interruptions affects operating results Nations Trust Bank PLC (NTB) had been building its loan book, albeit slowly before the pandemic forced the businesses to shutter, which put a strain on its operating performance for the three months ended in March 31, 2020, but the taxes taken off from the industry lifted its bottom line.
The bank reported an interest income of Rs.9.05 billion for the January-march quarter compared to Rs.9.88 billion in the year earlier period as the lender was building its loan book up to the level it had a year ago. NTB had a loan book of Rs.241.6 billion as at March 31, 2019, which came down to Rs.235.2 billion during the nine months to December. The bank started expanding it by Rs.2.7 billion during the first three months of 2020 to end the quarter with Rs.237.9 billion.
But that wasn’t enough to match the interest income of last year as the interest rates were coming down since then and interest ceilings in place.
“However, cost of funds declined at a faster rate of 13 percent due to effective fund management strategies supported by the growth in current and savings account balances.
As a result, reduction in net interest margins was contained to 30 basis points while net interest income reduction was contained at 1 percent,” the bank said in an earnings release.