May 25, 2017 Source

For the six months ending March this year, Citizens Bank (Guyana) registered a 34.5% slide in after-tax profit and there was a sharp rise in the value of bad loans.

According to the unaudited interim report for the six months ended March 31, 2017, published in Stabroek News yesterday, interest income fell from $1.553b last year to $1.399b this year.

The net impairment on financial assets for the six months jumped from $64.7m in 2016 to $176.8m, a rise of 173%.

Earnings per share over the period fell from $7.41 in 2016 to $4.85 this year.

At March 31, 2017, the net loans and advances balance was $28.6B compared to $29.4 in the previous year.

In his report, Board Chairman Clifford Reis said “The remaining six months of our financial year will require us to overcome the many challenges in the economic and regulatory environment respectively”, the Chairman said.