CITIBANK POSTS LOWEST NPLS IN Q1

CITIBANK has continued to lead the market with lowest non-performing loans in quarter one this year.

The bank's NPLs dropped to zero percent in Q1 from 0.1 percent at the end of last December.

The bank’s zero percent NPLs presenting a nil-amount at the end of March compared to 157m/- at last December.

The NPLs percentage was far from industry benchmark of 5.0 percent. Citibank, with a single branch in Dar es Salaam, loan portfolio increased to 173.72bn/- in three months to March against 160.78bn/- at the end of last December.

The number of loans generated 5.47bn/- in Q1 against 8.56bn/- in similar quarter last year.

During the period under review, the bank set aside some 916m/- for impairment assets while in the previous period set a zero-amount.

The bank last year won Institute of Risk Management Tanzania (IRMT) award in the medium-sized category with balance sheet between 500bn/- and 1.0tri/-.

IRMT award is won after commercial banks go a rating lens through balance sheet size, capital adequacy, liquidity, non-performing loans performance and independent risk management function.

Others are consistency in growth over three years in terms of pre-tax profitability, cost and income management, Return on Equity (RoE) and Return on Asset (ROA).

Citi won the award when its NPLs were at 0.1 percent or 172m/- of the total loan portfolio, which was well below the industry average 11.7 percent in 2017. The bank pre-profit slowed down to 3.05bn/- in Q1 from 4.76bn/- in Q1 last year.

The profitability slow down came after dropping of interest income to 6.69bn/- from 10.3bn/-. The assets grew to 896.44bn/-from 645.83bn/- while deposits almost double to 706.48bn/- from 454.53bn/-.

DailyNews