FNB grows customers 6%

Johannesburg – First National Bank – a unit of FirstRand –

says its business and premium segments drove it to a 6 percent increase in

profits before tax.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the bank says it saw good

growth in deposits and continued traction in its save and invest

strategies in the six months to December.  Profits from the operations in the rest of Africa fell on the

back of credit issues especially in Zambia and Mozambique due to difficult

macro business conditions, it says.

“We are pleased with the 6 percent growth in the overall

domestic customer base, with some 12 percent growth in overall transactional

volumes and especially with the pace at which our digital platforms continue

being adopted with app volumes up a respectable 80% year-on-year,” says FNB CEO

Jacques Celliers.

FNB had standout performances in its Business and Premium

Segments as a result of customer base growth and further entrenchment and share

of wallet across the respective segments with

Commercial producing a 16 percent increase in profits, it

says.

Read also:  FNB expands insurance base

FNB notes, however, growth in advances was deliberately

slowed across all categories of lending in line with the bank’s more

conservative lending stance given the weaker macros with impairment results in

line with expectations.

“Looking forward, we can see that improvements in the

underlying economy and our vigorous efforts to contain costs for the bank will

yield positive outcomes for our customers. We remain committed to our

operations in the rest of Africa and to our start-up business in Ghana,” adds Celliers.

Meanwhile, FirstRand CEO, Johan Burger, says “the group continued its delivery of

real growth in earnings and premium returns off a long track record of

outperformance”.

FirstRand

reported a 7 percent gain in diluted normalised earnings per share of 207.6c,

while normalised earnings came in at R11.6 billion.

It declared

a 119c a share dividend, 10 percent gain year-on-year.

Burger

says the growth was driven by solid operational performances from its

franchises and “is a very satisfactory outcome given the level of ongoing

investment in new growth initiatives, which is expected to deliver

outperformance in the medium term and the level of conservatism applied to the

balance sheet”.

FirstRand

added it will not chase growth at the expense of returns.

BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE