Kina Bank’s CEO Greg Pawson has announced an after-tax net profit of K96.2 million. Mr Pawson made the announcement with the bank’s Chief Financial Officer Chetan Chopra in Port Moresby recently.
Mr Pawson said, “Our underlying net profit after tax was up 27 per cent on the prior year. We are excited about becoming the second largest bank in PNG by footings. Our combined footings broke through K5 billion at end of 2021.”
The bank’s success was down to a number of factors. “Contributing to this was strong growth in our loan portfolio with new lending of over K550 million and 26 per cent growth year-on-year in the SME and commercial sectors of the market.
“We also saw strong growth of over 40 per cent in the corporate sector on-boarding several signature new customers to Kina, again reinforcing our position as a strong and well capitalised full service commercial bank,” he said.
Mr Pawson noted the bank had refined some of the on-boarding process, which was reflected by the fact that Kina welcomed over 25,000 new customers.
“As a result, we achieved 18 per cent growth in deposits to over K3 billion, and 28 per cent growth in transactional deposits,” Pawson said.
“Our ongoing investment in new digital technologies paid dividends with a 26 per cent growth in digital channel with revenues up 65 per cent year-on-year. Our total customer numbers now exceed 185,000, and combine this with our strategic partnership with MiBank, we now reach over 625,000 Papua New Guineans.”
Another helpful factor was a 19 per cent rise in foreign exchange earnings. The increase from the previous year comes as Kina continues to strengthen its correspondent banking arrangements offshore. This has been supported by the Asian Development Bank, one of its largest shareholders.
Pawson added, “Our legacy and affiliated funds administration and investment management businesses also performed well, delivering revenues of over K40 million. We intend to expand these key areas of differentiation over 2022 with the launch of e-KYC (Know Your Customers), which will allow new customers to Kina to on-board themselves and a number of new to market retail investment opportunities through a new look customer segment Kina Private Bank.”
