Bank South Pacific Country Head Haroon Ali says they have delivered an outstanding result of $52.1 million for 2019 which was up by about 23.2% over the same period in the previous year.
He says this is a great effort and clearly shows the level of commitment the BSP staff have to deliver this result.
Ali says their lending portfolio increased by about $92 million in the year.
The Country Head says this is despite very tough market conditions including liquidity available in the system for a few months last year.
He says the staff also received a bonus of $2.2 million last year. Meanwhile, BSP Group CEO Robin Fleming says the group recorded a net profit after tax of $577.7 million which is an increase of 5.5%.
He says it is a great result in a number of ways because not only it is an increase it a time when a number of banks found it more difficult to be able to continue to make profitability but in each of the countries they undertook their business – Fiji, PNG, Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga, Cambodia – every business grew their profitability.
He says BSP Fiji proved number 2 in lending and is very quick to being close to number 1.
He adds that Fiji National Provident Fund owns 6% of shares in the bank and it one of the top 10 investors in BSP and has overtaken some of the other PNG investors.