Squeezed margins hit newest bank

• Tweet

The costs of becoming a bank and squeezed margins saw The Cooperative Bank's profit fall sharply in the September quarter but its mortgage book grew.

Monday, December 5th 2011, 3:43PM 1 Comment

by Jenny Ruth

The Cooperative Bank, reporting for its last quarter as PSIS ahead of gaining bank registration on October 26, saw net profit drop to $0.44 million in the three months ended September from $1.92 million in the same three months last year.

Net profit for the six months ended September fell to $1.75 million from $4.34 million in the first half last year.

Chief executive Girol Karacaoglu says becoming a bank cost the cooperative $860,000.

Having to pay more for deposits and fewer high-margin personal loans also meant the bank's profit margin was squeezed. Net interest income fell 26.3% to $9.9 million in the quarter.

On the positive side, charges against profit for bad loans are abating, falling to $553,000 in the latest quarter from $725,000 in the September quarter last year.

The bank's mortgage book is growing at about the same pace as the mortgage market generally, Karacaoglu says.

The book grew by $15 million in the September quarter to $1.08 billion and by $53.8 million in the year ended September.

That means HSBC remains the smallest of the home-lending banks. HSBC's September quarter disclosure statement shows its mortgage book shrank $11.9 million to $979.6 million in the three months, more than reversing the $7.9 million growth shown in the June quarter.

Nevertheless, HSBC's net profit jumped 63.8% to $19 million for the three months ended September, mainly because of a write-back of previous charges against profit and a surge in fee and commission income.

HSBC wrote back $0.2 million in charges against profit for bad loans in the September quarter compared with the $2.3 million charge in the September quarter last year.

Comments from our readers

Commenting is closed