Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited announced its H1 2016 results. The half yearly profit of the bank (before tax) is Rs 9 billion in the first half of 2016 compared to Rs 8.5 billion in the first half last year. The balance sheet momentum has greatly supported the resilience of revenue which was negatively impacted by margin compression. Administrative costs continue to be well managed through operational efficiencies and disciplined spending, thereby leading to a 6 percent decrease from comparative period.
On the advances side, there is positive momentum across all business segments and have grown by 11 percent since start of the year. The continuous increase in low cost deposits has significantly supported the bank's performance with current and savings accounts comprising 94 percent of the deposits base. This has resulted in the bank having one of the lowest cost of deposits in the industry. Interim cash dividend of 7.5 percent (Re.0.75 per share) in respect of the half year ended June 30, 2016 has been declared by the Board of Directors in their meeting held on August 25, 2016.-PR