Pan Asia Bank records best-ever 9 month results
View(s):Pan Asia Banking Corporation PLC has reported its best-ever financial results in the 9-month period ending September 2020, a pre-tax profit of Rs.1,864.84 million and a post-tax profit of Rs.1,250.33 million, impressive growths of 47 per cent and 22 per cent respectively from the previous year amidst challenging conditions.
The bank’s operating profit before taxes on financial services increased by 19 per cent reflecting excellence in core banking performance and cost containment measures, although the bank’s fee based income dropped due to reduced business volumes due to disruptions caused by COVID-19 and waiver of fees and charges, the bank said in a media release.
The bank continues to build extra provision buffers for probable deterioration in credit quality, through use of higher probability weights for worst-case scenarios, management overlay adjustments and use of macroeconomic factor projections published by credible sources for collective impairment modelling. As a result, total impairment charges for the quarter increased by 65 per cent to Rs. 553.52 million compared to Rs. 335.64 million during the same period a year ago. “The bank’s net interest margins improved from 4.36 per cent to 4.42 per cent during the past nine months which is a commendable feat given the income loss due to the loan moratorium, the industry wide deterioration in credit quality and steps taken by the government to bring down market interest rates. Meanwhile, the bank’s pre-tax Return on Assets remained intact at 1.51 per cent in 2020,” the statement said.
Customer deposits recorded a growth of over 12 per cent to reach Rs. 137.60 billion. The bank’s CASA base grew by Rs.11.88 billion during the period improving the CASA ratio by over 650 basis points. The bank’s gross non-performing loan ratio slipped marginally from 6.31 per cent to 6.38 per cent during the period under review, while the net non-performing loan ratio improved from 2.82 per cent to 2.20 per cent due to prudential provisioning.