Bank of Punjab posts significant growth in earnings

Board of directors appreciates efforts of management for achieving 68% growth in pre-tax profit

KARACHI: The Bank of Punjab achieved substantial growth in earnings and remained fully compliant with the State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) prescribed capital and provisioning requirements.

In a meeting of The Bank of Punjab board of directors, held on October 26, 2018, un-audited financial statements of the bank for nine months ended September 30, 2018 were approved. The board of directors appreciated the efforts of the bank's management for achieving growth of 68% in the bank's before-tax profit during the first nine months of 2018 as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

Owing to aggressive marketing, fast track expansion and improvement in the bank's assets profile, during the first nine months of 2018, net interest margin of the bank significantly improved to Rs14.1 billion as against Rs11 billion earned during the corresponding period of last year.

The bank's non-mark-up/interest income remained at Rs2.9 billion. Accordingly, the bank earned profit before tax of Rs8.9 billion as against Rs5.3 billion for the corresponding period of last year, thereby registering a massive growth of 68%. Further, earnings per share remained at Rs2.06 per share.

As on September 30, 2018, deposits of the bank reached Rs568.3 billion as against Rs556.3 billion on December 31, 2017 and the bank's total assets increased to Rs663 billion.

Similarly, investments and gross advances remained at Rs202.5 billion and Rs416.9 billion, respectively. The bank's Tier-1 equity improved to Rs32.5 billion as against Rs26.8 billion as on December 31, 2017. As on September 30, 2018, the bank's capital adequacy ratio improved to 13.29%. Accordingly, the bank stands fully compliant with SBP's prescribed capital adequacy ratio requirement.

The bank has been assigned long-term entity rating of AA by the Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) with short-term being at highest rank of A1+.  The bank currently has a vast network of 552 online branches, including 70 Taqwa Islamic Banking branches spanned across the country. Further, bank also has a network of 479 ATMs providing 24/7 banking services to the customers.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2018.

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