One of Ghana’s first quartile banks, Standard Chartered Bank recorded a remarkable 69.7% growth in year-on-year earnings to ¢478 million in 2020, despite the impact of covid-19 on its operations, its 2020 Audited Financial Statement has revealed.

The bank’s growth was fuelled by outstanding growth in net trading income, which jumped by 48% to ¢247 million, whilst loan loss was also reduced to about ¢59 million.

It however recorded about ¢139.4 million in net fees and commissions at the end of 2020, about ¢36 million more than 2019.

Stanchart is one of the most efficient banks in the country today as the cost-to-income ratio-that is the measurement of operating costs in relation to earnings-was 28.2% during the period, far below the industry average.

Shareholders of the bank will be smiling as earnings per share hit ¢3.54 as against ¢2.08 a year ago.

In terms of the balance sheet, Stanchart balance sheet size was strong, hitting ¢8.03 billion.

Customers’ deposits were virtually unchanged at ¢5.75 billion at the end of December 2020. It stood at ¢5.42 billion in the same period last year.

The stated capital of the bank was unchanged at ¢400 million though it recorded a ¢440 million income surplus in December 2020.

For the stability of the bank, Stanchart registered a Capital Adequacy Ratio-a measurement of a bank’s available capital to its risk-weighted assets - of 17.96% and an NPL of 23.11%.