He said that total interest income rose 78 percent to Sh13 billion from Sh7.3 billion in first half 2011/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 9- Co-operative Bank’s pre-tax profit for the first six months of this year rose 21 percent to Sh5.01 billion.
Managing Director Gideon Muriuki attributed the improved performance to total interest income that nearly doubled.
He said that total interest income rose 78 percent to Sh13 billion from Sh7.3 billion in first half 2011.
The Bank’s earnings per share rose slightly to Sh0.96 from Sh0.95.
Non-funded income increased to Sh4.04 billion compared to Sh3.38 billion in 2011 reflecting a 19.5 percent growth.
This was mainly supported by fees and commissions, notably ATM commissions, agency banking, personal and business banking commissions, M-banking, forex income and letters of credit.
Muriuki added that the performance has been achieved despite the difficult macroeconomic environment, primarily through growth in non-funded income/transaction based fees and commissions from a sustained growth in the customers numbers.
The bank’s account holders grew to over 2.9 million.
Branch and Agency banking network expansion saw costs go up to 13 percent, and aggressive cost rationalization.
Gross non performing loans (NPL) increased 17.8 percent.
