Diamond Bank records N2tr total assets

For the nine months ended September 30, 2016, Diamond Bank Plc has recorded a growth of 16.9 per cent in total assets, from N1.753 trillion in 2015 to N2.05 trillion in 2016.

However, the bank’s Profit Before Tax stood at N3.8 billion, down from N18.5 billion recorded in the corresponding period in 2015.

The bank attributed the slide in PBT to charges, as it opted for prudent provisioning by cleansing its books of assets with poor quality, thus paving the way for operational efficiency and improved earnings for the business years ahead.

The bank attributed the rise in assets to the value of the local currency and growth in customer deposits, which surged 13.6 per cent from N1.233 billion as at the end of September 2015, to N1.401 billion in the current business year.

Its Non-interest income leap-frogged by 38.1 per cent to N37.6 billion. The Bank grew its retail customer base to over 13 million, while the use of its mobile app by customers continues to grow as transaction count increased from 4.3 million to 7.9 million with volume surging from N4.3 billion to N8.5 billion year on year.

Also, the restructuring of the bank, which started in Q1 2016, continued to yield results in terms of strategic focus, quality service delivery and cost containment. The result showed that through prudent allocation of resources, operating costs and interest expense shrank by 2.5 per cent and 22.8 per cent respectively.

Also, the Bank grew its loan portfolio from N763.634 billion to N1.041 trillion, representing 36.4 per cent increase.

The Bank maintained stable growth in its capital adequacy and liquidity ratios, with 15.6 per cent and 39.4 per cent, which towers above the regulatory requirements of 15 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. These were reaffirmed in the current ‘B’ rating of the Bank by Fitch Ratings, with Stable Outlook for Short-term and Long-term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR).

The Chief Executive Officer, Uzoma Dozie, attributed the bank’s modest growth in the last nine months to management’s focus on key strategic projections across the three core segments of retail, business and corporate banking. He noted that the bank will continue to passionately pursue its technology-driven retail strategy to optimise cost and reap predictable bountiful results in the medium to long term.