Barclays more than doubles profit

Matsekete said they have deliberately reduced their loan book owing to the poor economic environment. Non-performing loans were largely flat at 1.6 percent compared to a market average of 7.9 percent.

“In overall terms we needed to make sure that we preserve the quality of the loan book and we don’t compromise our lending practices for the sake of scale,” said Matsekete.

Guvamatanga said the bank extended a $20 million facility to SMEs especially to those owned by youths and women.

The bank managed to contain costs in the period as reflected by a 10 percent decrease in cost to income ratio from 83 percent in the prior year to 73 percent.

Guvamatanga said the bank has reduced the amount of bank notes it imports using their nostros because of the introduction of bond notes which have eased the demand for cash.

“On a very limited basis we are still importing bank notes but not at the same levels as we use to do before the introduction of the bond notes. To an extent, the bond notes have assisted in reducing the amount of cash we needed to import,” said Guvamatanga.

“Previously we were working on an average of $15 million per week and the numbers are much less now,” he added without giving figures.

The bank has 22 percent capital adequacy ratio and a liquidity ratio of 69 percent.-The Source

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