FIRST Capital Bank (FCB) Limited Zimbabwe, a subsidiary of FMB Capital Holdings Plc (FMBCH) has registered substantial growth in the first half of the year despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its half year financial results for the half year ending June 2021, the bank’s operating profit (profit before tax excluding investment property and joint venture fair valuations) for the 2021 half year was $669million compared to $97million in 2020 in inflation adjusted terms.
In historic reporting terms the bank posted an operating profit of $935 million compared to $122 million in 2020.
“This demonstrates progress on the execution of our corporate-led growth strategy underpinned by stable digital platforms, as evidenced in the growth of deposits by 11% to $9.8billion and loans by 89% to $4.4billion,” the bank said in a statement.
In the period under review FCB maintained a quality loan book with a loan loss ratio of 0.6%, NPL ratio of 0.14% with market average at 0.3%. Impairment coverage was at 1.8%.
The bank attributed the strong operating profit performance to loan book growth and increased transactional volumes.
“Whilst the COVID pandemic may have posed as an obstacle at first, we chose to view it as an opportunity to accelerate our digital transformation programme by developing key service enhancements that would improve our customer experience. This enabled us to continue to proffer relevant, quality banking solutions to our customers and clients when it mattered the most,” FCB managing director Ciaran McSharry said.
