NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 28 – Barclays Bank of Kenya (BBK) has recorded a 6.3 percent decline in net profit to Sh6.9 billion for the full year 2017 compared to the previous year where it posted Sh7.3 billion.
Total interest income went down by 3 percent to Sh27 billion compared to Sh28 billion previous year owing to flat growth in customer loans to close at Sh168 billion in the period under review.
Non-Funded Income also dropped by 10 percent largely driven by changes in accounting treatment and lower mark to market gains on fixed income trading book.
“The implementation of the interest rate cap compressed our margins and resulted in a decline in our revenues. Currently, our strategy is to close the income gap by increasing sales volumes in the upper segments, increasing our product penetration in our current client base and increasing our focus on transactional banking deposits,” Barclays Kenya Managing Director, Jeremy Awori, said.
The Bank costs dropped by 1 percent year on year to stand at Sh16.8 billion with the costs inclusive of Sh500Mn incurred to meet the Voluntary Exit Scheme (VES) program.
“To manage costs, we are making sustainable investments in a number of running initiatives designed to create sustainable efficiencies. These initiatives include the automation of our processing centers, investments in alternate channels and the implementation of branch rationalisation programmes,” said Awori.
