KCB profitability starts 2018 on a 14 percent high

With Sh418 billion loans the Kenya Commercial Bank was able to make a net profit of Sh5.18 billion by March this year a 14 percent increase from the Sh4.5 billion in the first three months of 2016.

At the bourse,  KCB Group was up 1 percent to trade at Sh50.50 while moving 1.8 million shares valued at Sh92.5 million.

KCB gave out Sh8 billion in loans to its 13 million mobile customers alone as it increased mobile transactions to 57 percent.

With 85 percent transactions divided among mobile, KCB Mtaani agents and Automatic Teller machines, bank tellers only served 15 percent of the lenders customers underscoring the focus on technology.

The Bank which plans to shut three branches this year and has sent home hundreds of workers is increasingly depending on technology to contain its costs.

Money made from other lines of business like commissions remained flat even dipping slightly as non-interest income by March this year was Sh5.4 billion while last year it was Sh5.56 billion.

The Country’s biggest lender by assets is now holding a total of Sh647 billion worth of assets from Sh605 billion last year.

Customer deposits also grew from Sh456.8 billion to Sh496.4 billion.

The lenders capital buffers remained strong despite a dip in shareholder funds from Sh101.2 billion to Sh99.6 billion and a decline in long-term debt funding from Sh23.6 billion to Sh22.5 billion.

Total capital adequacy ratio dropped by largely driven by the impact of the adoption of the IFRS 9, which came into effect from January 2018.