People’s Bank PAT grows 14 percent

The People’s Bank’s audited financial show profit before taxation and appropriations reaching its highest level of Rs 5.6bn in the 2008 financial year, whilst profit before tax for the group surpassed Rs 7.1bn. The Bank’s profit before taxation indicated a growth of 13.2 percent whilst profit after taxation recorded an impressive 14 percent growth over the previous year.

The Bank’s capital funds now amount to Rs 15.9bn up from Rs 12.9bn over the previous year.

This was contributed by a capital injection of Rs 1.5bn by the Government and substantial retained earnings, despite high taxation and return to the Government. The People’s Bank’s contribution to the Government by way of taxes and the levies increased by 18 percent to reach Rs 7.3bn compared to Rs 6.2bn in 2007.

The second phase of the People’s Bank’s major restructuring drive, based on the strategic plan initiated in 2001 was completed in 2008, achieving outstanding success for the Bank. A key focus on the Bank’s Strategic Plan has been to create a customer centric and performance oriented culture. The Bank has already formulated the next Strategic Plan for 2009-2014 and will be focusing on achieving the set goals and objectives from 2009.

The People’s Bank recorded a healthy profit before taxation of Rs 5.6bn in 2008, compared to Rs 5bn in 2007.

The Bank’s IT platform has 423 branches and service centres linked for online transactions, with 240 ATM machines in strategic locations islandwide.

The Bank has introduced palm top banking and testing and the ground work has been already done to launch SMS and internet banking.