JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s Nedbank Group reported an 8% rise in its full-year headline earnings on Tuesday, supported by strong non-interest revenue (NIR) growth, a reduced impairment charge, and strict cost control.
For the year ended December 31, the bank’s headline earnings – a profit measure – grew to 16.9 billion rand ($907.56 million) from 15.6 billion rand a year earlier.
The NIR increased by 10% to 30.4 billion rand, driven by strong growth in commission and fees, along with significant increases in trading income and insurance income, the bank said.
Net interest income (NII) – which represents the difference between earnings from loans and what banks pay on deposits – nudged up by 1% to 41.8 billion rand despite slower loan growth and margin pressure.
The group’s impairment charge dropped by 17% to 7.9 billion rand, as its credit loss ratio – a measure of bad loans as a percentage of total loans – of 87 basis points improved significantly as macroeconomic factors also showed improvement.
($1 = 18.6214 rand)
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
