by Linda Straker
- Larry Lawrence takes over from Richard Duncan as Managing Director
- Co-op bank recorded its 8th consecutive year steady profitability
- Bank’s non-performing loans ratio remains below 1% as of 30 September 2021
Notwithstanding the difficult economic environment caused by the measures enforced to deal with and or reduce some of the social effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Grenada Cooperative Bank (Co-op Bank) turned in a commendable performance for the 2021 financial year which covers the period 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2021.
“Co-op bank recorded its 8th consecutive year steady profitability despite the financial and economic crisis, increasing by 3% the bank turns in after-tax profit of EC$9.9 million compared to EC$9.6 million in 2020,” said Darryl Brathwaite, Chairman of the Board of Directors.
“This performance primarily reflects effective credit risk management along with consistent yields on a high quality and expanding credit portfolio, effective management of the interest expense considering the value of the credit portfolio and growth in other income,” he told the media during a news conference on Wednesday, 8 December 2021. The objective of the media event was to discuss the bank’s performance for its 2020/2021 financial year.
Brathwaite said the bank’s non-performing loans ratio remains below 1% as of 30 September 2021. The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has set a benchmark for banks in the region to not surpass non-performing loans of total loans beyond 5%. Co-op Bank is a member of the ECCB. When a borrower fails to meet the obligation to service his/her loan, as arranged with a commercial bank, for a 90-day period, the loan is deemed to be non-performing. Brathwaite said that demonstrating the success of the bank’s non-performing is due to the management’s previously articulated commitment to continuously improve the bank’s credit underwriting and containment of loan delinquency.
The primary focus of the bank is maintaining high access quality to commercial loan customers and in 2021 the total asset for the bank grew by 11.2% or EC$143 million. A review of the bank’s profit and loss statement shows that there were increased deposits for the period under review.
New installed Managing Director Larry Lawrence who is taking over from Richard Duncan, said that the increase in deposits was due to existing customers making more deposits. The total deposits for 2021 was EC$1,277,134,322 while for the 2020 it was EC$1,151,401,091.
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The primary reason for a bank as with most businesses is to make a profit.
They are not there to improve the lives of customers. They use our money to make as much returns as possible. I am not fooled by any bank when they boast about the profits they make from the poor man in the street.
In this difficult time when people are struggling to make ends meet and this bank boasts of the profits that they wrench out of poor people. It is a shame. They will only give a pittance to the community, not a surprise to me.
I hope the general public is looking at the performance of one of the banks during this difficult period for all concerned.
Let us see what they will put back into the community as the struggle continues as we all try to recover from covid.
Indeed Storm, banks charge very high service fees, we all know this to be true. Question is how will they express their gratitude to their customers by spending some profits to better the community?