An increase in the expenses set aside for bad loans and customer defaults saw total expenses rise faster than revenue at Barclays Bank last year, leading to a slight decline in after-tax profits.
The bank’s financials, released in the press on Saturday, show net profits declining by 0.46% to Shs55bn from Shs55.29bn in 2016.
Revenue rose 12.7% to Shs272bn, largely due to an increase in interest income from loans and advances, which came in at Shs124.99bn compared to Shs106.16bn in 2015. Barclays however recorded a modest increase in loans to customers, which increased by 5.76% to Shs821.52bn.
On the other hand, lending to other banking institutions was up by 280% and came in at Shs60.26bn versus Shs15.85bn the previous year.
Expenses increased to Shs200.66bn from Shs171.65bn. A notable contributor to the rise was loan loss provisions which increased by 120.59% from Shs11.91bn in 2015 to Shs26.27bn last year. Operating expenses categorised as ‘other’ rose 7.47% to Shs128.38bn.
The bank’s profits before tax were Shs71.4bn compared to Shs69.75bn in 2015, an increase of 2.37%.
Its total assets rose 17.69% to Shs1,909.32bn, driven by the increase in customer loans and a 27.27% growth in available for sale investments to Shs432.5bn.
Meanwhile, customer deposits increased to Shs1,392.67bn, growing by 17.62% in 2016. This pushed up total liabilities to Shs1,514.73bn from Shs1,289.35bn.
Total shareholders equity was increased to Shs394.58bn from Shs333.03bn.