STEWARD Bank recorded 176 000 new customers, which helped grow its profit after tax by 268,4% to $22,45 million for the financial year ending February 28, 2018.
This was from a previous of $6,15 million recorded over the same period last year.
In a statement accompanying the results for the period under review yesterday, Steward Bank chief executive officer, Lance Mambodiani said a surge in transactions from customers was behind the improvement in profits.
“In the financial year under review, the bank recorded a profit before tax of $32,7 million due to the growth in revenue driven mainly by an increase in transactional volumes on our digital platforms,” he said.
The increase in transactions led to a 125,26% increase in non-interest income to $63,06 million for the period under review from $27,99 million.
“The bank experienced an unprecedented surge in the volume of transactions processed, which required us to respond with a significant investment to upgrade our technology platforms and systems.”
The growth of customers led to a 141% jump in deposits to $348,2 from $144,6 million recorded in the 2017 comparative period.
This translated to a 86,89% growth in its net interest income to $13,29 million from a previous of $7,11 million in the 2017 comparative.
But, this was not due to higher loans and advances were down to $32,82 million for the period under review from around $57 million in the 2017 comparative.
The bank managed to record an uptick in the net interest income despite loans declining due to mortgage loan disbursements, increased activity on the interbank market and investments in held-to-maturity assets.
Steward Bank is part of the Econet Wireless Zimbabwe Limited group
- Newsday
