KCB Third Quarter Profits Hit 18 Billion Shillings

Kenya Commercial Bank has registered profits of 18 billion shillings for the third quarter of 2018 for the nine-month period ended September. This was an increase from 15 billion shillings registered at the same time in 2017.

The 19.6 percent increase in Q3 profits has been attributed to efforts by the lender to cut on costs as well as the drop in provision for bad loans.

The operating expenses dropped by 2.1 billion shillings to 28.6 billion shillings. Provisions for bad debts, on the other hand, dropped by 42.6 percent to 1.7 billion shillings.

During the year, the lender embarked on investing in technology especially the use of mobile banking by customers, greatly cutting on the cash spend on paying salaries for tellers and other workers. Transaction without going to the bank accounted for 87 percent of total services, meaning only 13 percent of services were offered through the branches.

The loan book grew by 3.7 percent to 435.2 billion shillings. The investment in government debt increased by 10.9 percent to 100.6 billion shillings putting the total interest above by 5.1 percent to 49.1 billion shillings.

Deposits from customers rose by 6.1 percent to 526.8 billion shillings. The interest expenses rose by 15.9 percent to 12.8 billion shillings