A meeting of the Board of Directors of The Bank of Punjab (BOP) was held on March 04, 2019. During the meeting, audited financial statements of the Bank for the year ended December 31, 2018 were approved by the Board.
While approving annual financial statements of the Bank, the Board announced and recommended a cash dividend of 7.5 percent for shareholders for the year 2018, after a period of 10 years. The decision of fully providing against legacy non-performing loans (NPLs), earlier covered through Letters of Comfort (LOCs) issued by the Government of Punjab (GOPb), as of December 31, 2017 and improved financial performance of the Bank during the year 2018 enabled it to remain compliant with State Bank of Pakistan's capital & provisioning requirements and paved the way for Dividend payouts to shareholders.
The Board appreciated the efforts of Bank's management and noted with pleasure that at current pace of growth, the Bank is bound to achieve new heights in years to come and all stakeholders shall duly benefit from Bank's future success, as well. While further accelerating the growth trends and achieving set business targets, during the year 2018, Net Interest Margin (NIM) of the Bank improved significantly to Rs20.1 billion as against Rs15.6 billion during last year thereby reflecting a phenomenal growth of 29 percent.
The Bank's non-markup/ interest income remained at the level of Rs3.7 billion. Accordingly, the Bank earned before tax profit of Rs.12.2 billion as against loss of Rs (4.7) billion for last year. Further, Earnings Per Share (EPS) of the Bank remained at Rs.2.86 per share.
As on December 31, 2018, the Deposits of the Bank touched the level of Rs.595.6 billion as against Rs556.3 billion last year. The gross advances and net investments stood at Rs.425.8 billion and Rs.237.9 billion, respectively. The Bank's total assets as on December 31, 2018 stood at Rs714.4 billion as against Rs.657.7 billion as on December 31, 2017.
The Bank's Tier-I equity improved to Rs34.5 billion as against Rs26.8 billion as on December 31, 2017. As on December 31, 2018, the Bank's Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) improved to 13.17 percent. Accordingly, the Bank stands fully compliant with SBP's prescribed CAR requirement.-PR
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