CalBank Rolls Out Two-Year Fintech Plan – MD

CalBank has built an architecture that allows various businesses to offer their services on the bank’s application, CEO Philip Owiredu has said.

He said under the bank’s digital and fintech strategy, relying on infrastructure, automation and creating a digital ecosystem, the bank, among others, implemented a two-year Fintech rollout plan to offer customers new products with brand new experience.

Speaking at the bank’s fact-behind-the-numbers series tour of the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra on Wednesday, Owiredu said the bank had automated all its processes and operated a fully functional automated 24-hour contact centre.

“CalBank has updated its core banking platform to be more agile to easily accommodate its digital banking channels,” he said.

Owiredu said the profit after tax of CalBank fell by eight percent from GH¢170,214 in the third quarter last year to GH¢156,626.

Owiredu said total assets increased by 26.3 percent from GH¢8.7 billion to GH¢10.9 billion driven by increased advances and investment securities.

“Total revenue increased by 10.3 percent compared to last year’s turnover of GH¢555.7 million. The result for the period was primarily driven by improved credit operations and channel performance,” he said.

Mr Owiredu said net commissions and fees increased by 96.8 per cent due to improved credit activities and electronic banking services.

He said total deposits increased by 13.3 per cent to GH¢6.5 billion from intense drivers of corporate and private deposit mobilization, including through electronic channels.

The CEO said investment values ​​increased by 811 percent in line with the bank’s strategy to increase interest income by investing excess liquidity in short-term investments.

“Net lending and advances increased by 58.5 per cent to GH¢35 billion from GH¢2.2 billion as we converted pipeline loans to book transactions,” he said.

The CEO of CalBank said loans increased by 84.6 percent as we expanded our partnerships to secure loans from development finance institutions.

Owiredu said expenditure remained controlled throughout the review period, explaining that “For the year to September 2022, operating expenditure was GH¢332.6 million, reflecting a 32.3 per cent increase over GH¢251.3 million last year. “

He explained that the increase in expenditure was driven by the impact of exchange rates on foreign currency expenditure, inflation and increases in salary levels for staff.

“Net impairment losses fell from GH¢48.8 million to GH¢39.8 million representing 18.3 per cent. The improvement in credit loss charges was partly due to significant recoveries and the improved quality of the new loan portfolio,” said MrOwiredu.

He said non-performing loans fell from 13.7 percent in the third quarter of 2021 to 6.5 percent in the third quarter of this year, adding that the capital adequacy ratio also fell from 19.3 percent in the third quarter of last year to 16.3 percent. in the third quarter of this year.

Outlining the strategic priorities of the bank, MrOwiredu said “Our overall strategy is to become a tier-one bank by total assets and deepen our retail presence by leveraging innovation and customer centricity.”

He said the bank’s vision was to be the bank of choice for customer experience and innovation.

The CEO said the bank remained resilient amid the global pandemic, making some significant progress with the bank’s three-year strategy, adding that “Our aggressive balance sheet growth resulted in 8th position in the industry from 9th the previous year.”

He said the bank will continue to focus on brand communication, digitization and innovation, products and channels, technical, organizational culture and performance management, and strategic partnerships and efficiency and profitability.

Mr Owiredu said the bank had a strong development of the bank’s internal processes, people, technology, risk management and customer service offerings.