FBN Holdings Plc (FBNHoldings) posted N206 billion profit before tax in the year’s first half.
The six-month report for the period ended 30 June 2023 showed that the company grew gross earnings and profit before tax to N656.6 billion and N206.3 billion respectively.
Group Managing Director, FBN Holdings Plc, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo said the company has continued to deliver a strong financial performance despite the complex operating environment due to its reinforced foundations, deep market understanding, strong risk management, and execution capabilities.
“Across our businesses, we continue to focus on customer-centric innovations with strong transactional and digital capabilities supported by sound risk management practices to anticipate and creatively deliver products and services that delight the different customer segments that we serve. Furthermore, we are committed to leveraging technology via digital platforms to enhance operational efficiency”.
Although the current operating environment remains challenging, we are confident of successfully navigating the terrain in our transformation journey to deliver sustainable value to our stakeholders,” Okonkwo said.
In commercial banking, FirstBank achieved gross earnings of N607.7 billion, up 82.4 per cent from N333.2 billion recorded in June 2022. Net interest income stood at N232.6 billion, up 52.1 per cent compared to N152.9 billion recorded in June last year.
FirstBank’s profit before tax stood at N188.8 billion, up 214.6 per cent as against N60.0 billion recorded in June while profit after tax stood at N174.9 billion, up 228.3 per cent (Jun 2022: N53.3 billion). Also, total assets stood at N13.6 trillion, up 34.8 per cent year-to-date as against N10.1 trillion in the same period of last year.
Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank (Commercial Banking Group), Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, said: “In the first half of 2023, FirstBank Group delivered the strongest financial performance in the almost 130 years of the Bank’s history; with solid business momentum, increased revenue, and excellent returns.”
The result reflects the continued positive impact of our strategy and the tremendous progress we have made in growing and transforming the Group. The development also highlights the resilience of our business model, customer relationships, and institutional capabilities.
While the uncertainties in the macroeconomic and operating environment persist, I am confident that our purpose-driven strategy remains the right one and that our strong financial performance, alongside our business model and resilient portfolios, positions the Group well to continue to provide the required support to our customers as well as create robust and sustainable value to our shareholders.
Given our extensive and diversified customer base of over 42 million customer accounts, our digital technology-enabled processing capabilities that ensure we process over 12% of the industry’s payment volume, our future-proof and cutting-edge digital banking platforms with over 22 million users that enable us to process more than 95 per cent of customer-induced transactions on digital channels, the robustness of our balance sheet, and our institutionalized risk management culture and capabilities, we see a resilient franchise today and into the future.”
Culled from The Nation