Daily Times

National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) today reported profit after-tax for the half-year ending June 30, 2021 of Rs17.0 billion on total revenue of Rs65.4 bn. This is compared to profit after-tax of Rs15.1bn on total revenues of Rs66.8bn for the corresponding half year period of 2020. Strong financial results demonstratethe resilience of the bank’s business model and the efforts of its staffduring this period.

The Board of Directors of National Bank of Pakistan met under the Chairmanship of Zubyr Soomro on August 26, 2021 to review the performance of the bank and approve the condensed interim financial statements for the half-year ending June 30, 2021.

Revenues decreased two percent from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting the impact of drop in the policy rate and normalisation in market activity. Gross mark-up/interest income of the bank closed at Rs108.0bn, which is 25.7 percent below, YoY. Likewise, the interest/mark-up expense also dropped significantly by 37.4 percent to Rs60.6bn. Consequently, net interest/mark-up income of the bank stood at Rs47.4bn, i.e. marginally 2.2% lower, YoY. Given the subdued trade activity during most of period under review, non-mark-up/non-interest earning of the bank closed 1.6 percent lowerat Rs18.0bn. Accordingly, total revenue of the bank closed 2.0 percent downYoY at Rs65.4bn.

Despite inflationary pressures and higher operational costs amidst the pandemic, administrative costsremained well controlled and recorded a marginal increase of 3.7% YoY to close at Rs30.6Bn. This translates into cost-to-income ratio of 46.8%, slightly up from 44.2% in 1H’20. During the period, NPLs of the bank increased by 7.7% to close at Rs184.4bn. Proactively moving from ‘incurred’ to ‘expected’ credit loss model, the bank created adequate provision charge of Rs6.8bn to make its balance sheet more resilient in the prevailing circumstances. Positively, provision charge for the period is 57 percent below the Rs15.6bn provision charge in 1H’20.

On the balance sheet side, the bank’s capital discipline has improved significantly. While complying with the regulatory capital requirements, the bank’s total capital adequacy ratio improved to 22.18% (Dec’20:19.78%).