Standard Bank’s earnings for the six months to the end of June were 27 percent higher than the previous comparative period, the country’s largest bank by assets said on Friday.
The bank said that headline earnings rose to R10.5bn, compared with R8.3bn previously, with strong growth observed in its corporate and investment banking and personal and investment banking divisions, which grew 18 percent and 16 percent respectively.
The corporate and investment banking division saw an earnings boost as nontaxable investment income attracted a lower tax rate, while the personal and investment banking division benefited from higher net interest income and noninterest revenue coupled with slightly lower credit impairment charges.
Standard Bank also pocketed R2.8bn from the sale of the large block of shares in the London-based Standard Bank Plc, which has now been renamed ICBC Standard Bank Plc, and accounts for its minority stake in the company as associate income.
Losses at the London subsidiary, which reached R3.7bn last year, moved the group’s remuneration committee to slash joint CEOs Ben Kruger and Sim Tshabalala’s pay by between 13 percent and 33 percent.
In China, the group managed to partially recover losses arising from fraud uncovered at the Qingdao port, which the London business utilised as part of its global commodities trading business.
Last year, the group said there was evidence of fraud relating to financing arrangements surrounding physical aluminium held at bonded warehouses there, and estimated the effect on Standard Bank’s income statement at about R854m.
It has banked R171m from the partial recovery of the insurance claim, the write-off of the rest of the exposure, and the release of cash flow hedges relating to this disposal.
