KARACHI: The Board of Directors of Bank Alfalah Limited in its meeting held on August 25, 2021, approved the Bank's un-audited condensed interim financial statements for the half year ended June 30, 2021.
The first half of 2021 has been a period of remarkable growth for the Bank. Profit after tax increased by 24.2 percent and stood at Rs 6.934 billion while Earning Per Share (EPS) was Rs 3.90 (June 2020: Rs 3.14).
Net mark-up income was marginally down from last year, the primary reason being a sharp decline of 625 bps in the discount rate. However, increase in earning assets and deposits supported revenue. Non-markup income increased by 15.9 percent with strong contribution from capital gains and fee income. Fees and commissions also demonstrated robust increase of 33.5 percent over last year. This was driven by growth across all business lines, with exceptional performance from home remittance, cards (issuance and acquiring), trade and consumer finance businesses.
Non-markup expenses were higher by 11.2 percent compared to the same period last year, driven largely by higher compensation costs, the full year impact of new branches opened last year, IT related costs, Roshan Digital Account communications and marketing costs, and inflation related effects.
The Bank has achieved the historic milestone and crossed the Rs 1 trillion landmark deposit level; deposits reached Rs 1.026 trillion, growing by 26.9 percent over June 2020 level; a net absolute increase of Rs 217.672 billion. This was led by 27.7 percent growth in current deposits while the CA mix improved to 46.5 percent as at June 30, 2021.
The Bank's gross advances were reported at Rs 638.323 billion, up by 18.7 percent compared to June 2020 level. As at half year end, gross advances to deposits ratio stood at 62.2 percent. Asset quality remained strong, with non-performing loans ratio at 3.9 percent and the coverage ratio at 99.3 percent as at June 30, 2021.
The Board of Directors has declared an interim cash dividend of Rs 2.0 (20 percent) per share. At the close of the first half, the Bank remains adequately capitalised with CAR at 15.4 percent.
Commenting on the results, the President & CEO of the bank, Atif Bajwa said: "A significant ramp up in the business volume has been achieved through the resilience of our people and the vision of the Board. We express our sincere gratitude to our customers for placing trust in our team, and to the board for lifting boundaries and easing constraints, enabling us to exceed expectations and achieve this goal."-PR
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021