Coop Bank posts 29 pc growth in earnings on interest income
A customer receives service at a Co-op Bank banking hall. The lender has announced a 29 per cent growth in earnings for the three months to March. PHOTO | FILE
Co-operative Bank has announced a 29 per cent growth in earnings for the three months to March, posting Sh3.17 billion in net profit compared to Sh2.46 billion recorded during a similar period last year.
The lender, the first NSE-listed bank to announce its quarter one results, recorded the growth on the back of a 21 per cent increase in net interest income to Sh5.85 billion compared to Sh4.82 billion last year.
Co-operative Bank’s total assets grew by 25 per cent to Sh309.6 billion with the lender’s loans and advances to customers during the period standing at Sh184.1 billion or 68 per cent of total assets.
The bank, which recently retrenched 160 employees as part of a transformation agenda, saw its total operating expenses increase three per cent to Sh4.3 billion compared to Sh4.16 billion last year.
“The performance is on the backdrop of the “Soaring Eagle’ transformation project which the bank embarked on in year 2014 with critical focus on improving operational efficiencies, cost management and increasing frontline productivity,” said Gideon Muriuki, the bank’s managing director.
The lender reported a profit after tax of Sh8 billion for the year ended December 2014 compared to Sh9.1 billion recorded in the previous year.
