Standard Chartered Bank has recorded stellar financial performance in the first quarter of 2020 registering a growth of 53 percent year-on-year.
According to the financial results, the bank’s profit increased to Rs. 5.3 billion compared with the profit of Rs. 3.51 billion recorded in the corresponding period of last year, showing a growth of Rs. 1.7 billion.
Apparently, the bank continued its remarkable profitable performance in the first quarter with no adverse impact on the business and revenues streams during the period of lockdown in connection with Covid-19.
The bank consistently made money from interest income which shot up to Rs. 7.6 billion from Rs. 6.1 billion of last year’s same period due to higher interest rates in the said period. Its non-markup income surged to Rs. 4.2 billion during the first quarter of the 2020.
On the other hand, the bank’s overall expenses stood quite controlled at Rs. 2. 9 billion and it made a contribution of Rs. 3.4 billion as taxes to the national kitty.
Standard Chartered Bank is one of the fast-growing profitable banks which jumped to number three from 6 in 2019 among the top banks of Pakistan’s banking industry. The bank made its all-time high profit of over Rs. 16 billion in 2019.
The bank recently witnessed a transition of leadership as the President and CEO Shahzad Dada resigned from the bank to join United Bank Limited in the coming weeks.
The central bank has slashed the policy rates by 5.25 percent to 8 percent in the past two months whereas the borrowing from the banks has been increased over the same period on the incentivized schemes and in general.
It will depend on the bank to sustain its profit or multiply it with the peak demand of its services to the business especially in the new normal, a term described for the period of Post Covid-19.
