CAL Bank has become the latest financial institution to announce its intention to slow down on aggressive lending for this year.

The move has been influenced by the inability of businesses and individuals to pay on time funds borrowed from the Bank.

StanChart last month also indicated it was moving towards this direction because of the challenging economic environment.

Speaking to Joy Business after the Bank’s Annual General Meeting, Managing Director, Frank Adu Jr said it will not be prudent to go ahead with aggressive asset growth when there are challenges with re-payment of loans.  

“To protect the CAL Bank balance sheet, we have decided we are going to slow down. If you want a loan from me, I will make a decision as to whether within the constraints and limitations of my present circumstances I should make that loan, and if I determine that I should I would, if I determine no I shouldn’t, I wouldn’t. ”

"I’m not saying we’re not going to make loans but if for instance we were averaging a 40 percent loan growth every year, this year you look at it and say well, under the circumstances until I have recovered X, Y, Z I’m going to do 20 percent. We need to have serious risk management practices in place otherwise, we will collapse the bank.”

CAL Bank saw its profits go up by some 14 percent to reach to ¢160 million

Mr. Frank Adu attributed the growth in profits to being prudent with its lending. 

He maintained that the bank is committed to scaling to new heights while delivering strong and sustainable returns to the benefit of its shareholders.

As such “our digital transformation strategy for 2016 to 2018 is on track", he said adding that based on that performance, every shareholder is going to get 97 pesewas as a dividend for every share held.

He was also of the view that, despite the challenging environment, the bank is poised to produce sterling results for this year.