TANZANIA Commercial Bank (TCB) net profit has increased nearly three times in this year’s second quarter, pushed up mainly by non-interest income.
The bank’s statement released showed net profit increased by 114 per cent to 5.3bn/- in Q2 from 1.83bn/- in Q1 of a similar period last year.
Furthermore, non-interest income increased by 47 per cent to 12.2bn/- from 8.3bn/- attributed to foreign currency dealings and translation gains, fees and commissions.
The report released on Tuesday showed foreign currency dealings and translation gains over doubled to 2.89bn/- from 1.19bn/- while fees and commissions climbed up to 2.3bn/-from 1.8bn/-.
Additionally, the lender with more than 1.32tri/- total assets, its net interest income increased slightly by 2.7 per cent to 23bn/- from 22bn/- in a similar quarter the previous year.
The increment in net-interest income attributed to the number of loans provided worth 837bn/- despite the decrease by 2.4 per cent compared to a previous amount of 858bn/-.
The statement showed customer deposits also decreased by 5.2 per cent to 870bn/- from 919bn/- in a similar quarter last year.
However, non-performing loans (NPLs) have decreased by 62 per cent to 29.6bn/- in Q2 from 78bn/- in Q1. The NPLs ratio to total gross loan went down to 3.4 per cent from 8.8 per cent well below the industry benchmark of 5.0 per cent.
On the other hand, the bank’s operating cost increased by 4.3 per cent to 10.6bn/- from 10.1bn/- a similar quarter of the prior year attributed to the increased number of branches to 52 from 48 while the number of employees went down to 1067 from 1093.
TCB, formerly known as TPB Bank plc was formed in 1925 as Tanganyika Post Office Savings Bank Ordinance was passed by the British Colonial government that established the Tanganyika Post Office Savings Bank.
The government owns 83 per cent stake in TCB while Tanzania Posts Corporation, the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar, TP and TC Savings and Credit Society, the Public Service Social Security Fund and Workers’ Compensation Fund take the remaining 17 per cent respectively.