NTB continues growth momentum

Nations Trust Bank has reported strong growth across all its business lines during the period of nine months ending September 30, 2010. Also, improving credit quality as experienced across the industry, resulted in lower provisioning and improvement in debt recovery, which further boosted profits for the period under review.

During the nine month period under review, the total assets of the Bank grew steadily from Rs 70 billion to Rs 84 billion.

The gross loans and advances portfolio recorded a growth of Rs 8.6 billion or 23 percent with half the growth coming in the third quarter, indicative of the growing credit demand in the market. Total deposits of the Bank, which stood at Rs 44 billion at the end of December 2009 increased to Rs 48 billion at the end of September 2010 recording a growth of Rs 3.6 billion or 8 percent.

Net interest income, recorded a 28 percent growth, increasing from Rs 2,680 million in 2009 to Rs 3,434 million by third quarter 2010 aided by volume growth in the lending book, Operating expenses increased by 15 percent from Rs 2,449 million to Rs 2,817 million. A focused approach to expense management helped the cost to income ratio to improve by 2 percent to 55 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2009.

Provision for loan losses showed a significant turnaround with a 74 percent reduction contributing to a substantial growth in the bottom line. Increase in the general provision is, however, in line with the growth in the loan book.

As a result, the NPL Ratio improved further during the quarter and stood at 4.5 percent compared to 8.5 percent at year end 2009.