Twenty-four days after the end of the regulatory period for filing, the board of Diamond Bank Plc, on Monday presented its audited result for the year ended December 31, 2016, indicating that while gross earnings and profit sagged, bad and doubtful loans in the bank’s books rose by 77.14% in the period under review, further illustrating the nation’s unfriendly operating environment.
Non-performing loans for the period, the bank reported, rose from N56.684bn to N100.411bn, the bulk of which was the N98.927bn overdraft facilities, while term loans gone bad stood at N1.484bn. By geographical classification, the South West accounted for N69.769bn of the toxic loans, up from N34.386bn in 2015; followed by South-South with N16.654bn from N7.142bn; and N10.186bn, as against N6.971bn from the “rest of West Africa.”
Diamond Bank recorded N34.565bn impairment charges for credit losses, principally from the business banking segment, which stood at N15.919bn; followed by N11.423bn in the corporate banking segment; N7.315bn in retail banking; while the treasury segment recorded a credit of N92.933m.
Gross earnings fell to N212.412bn from N217.091bn; with interest and similar income sliding from N157.86bn in 2015 to N149.671bn; while interest expense dropped to N42.346bn from N148.454bn; resulting in net interest income of N107.225bn, up from previous year’s N109.406bn. Net impairment loss on financial assets rose to N69.024bn from N66.172bn, just as net interest income after impairment loss on financial assets dropped to N48.2bn from N64.234bn
Fee and commission income rose from N46.67bn to N39.638bn; just as fee and commission expense increased slightly to N8.954bn from N8.827bn, bringing net fee and commission income to N37.616bn to N30.811bn. Net trading income jumped to N13.484bn from N6.563bn, bringing net operating income to 102.087bn, as against N104.638bn in the 2015 full year.
Total expenses for the period was flat at N97.052bn from N97.545bn; with major expense heads such as other operating expenses of N54.22bn, which dropped from N67.136bn; personnel expenses rose slightly also from N31.904bn to N32.536bn.
Profit before tax therefore dropped from N7.092bn to N5.034bn; while profit after tax stood at N3.498bn, a drop of about N2.158bn or 38.15%, compared with previous year’s N5.656bn, representing earnings per share of 15 kobo, compared with 24 kobo a year earlier.