Bank Profits

Feb 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's DFCC Bank group December quarter profits dipped 11.1 percent to 566.6 million rupees from a year earlier due to higher taxes, while interest rate spreads have grown. In the December quarter interest income fell 10.8 percent to 2.77 billion rupees, while interest expenses dipped 21.6 percent to 1.6 billion rupees, resulting in a net interest income of 1.17 billion rupees, up almost 10 percent.

The group made a foreign exchange loss of 31 million rupees, while other incomes were down 24 percent to 277.8 million rupees.

Non-interest expenses were up 9.4 percent to 570.5 million rupees.

Accounts filed with the stock exchange showed a reversal of 30 million rupees on general loan loss provisions, while specific loan loss provisions were up 785 percent to 290.6 million rupees.

The banking group's performing loans were down 14.1 percent to 44.6 billion rupees, while non-performing loans were up 19.4 percent to 7.95 billion rupees.

DFCC Group's loan book had shrunk 12.7 percent to 47.8 billion rupees, while bank deposits were up 3.6 percent to 24.4 billion rupees.

Investments in long term government debt were up 121 percent to almost 21 b