The Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP) recently released its results for the first half of 2022. These results show an increase of 16.6% compared to the same period in 2021.
Consolidated net income continued its recovery, rising by 18.6% to nearly 2.4 billion dirhams, said the BCP in a press release, noting that despite the economic slowdown, the consolidated cost of risk has reduced by nearly from 18% to 1.8 billion dirhams.
Concerning the consolidated net banking income (NBI), it appreciated by 3% to almost 10.5 billion dirhams, mainly benefiting from the evolution of the interest margin and the margin on commissions which were reinforced respectively by 5.9% and 6.7%.
This performance reflects the efforts made by the Group to optimize the cost of resources and the good performance of the subsidiaries both in Morocco and in sub-Saharan Africa. These achievements made it possible to offset the 16.9% drop in profit from market activities, due to the impact of the rise in interest rates on the trading portfolio.
Also, the BCP reports that general expenses increased by 4.4% in the first half of 2022 to 5.1 billion dirhams. Consequently, the cost/income ratio stood at 48.7%.
As for the Group’s deposits, they continued to strengthen by 3.5% to stand at 353.8 billion dirhams, while gross credits firmed up by 1.3%, compared to 31/12/ 2021, at 292 billion dirhams.
In Morocco, the Bank posted, in H1-2022, a satisfactory trend in its indicators. Indeed, customer deposits continued on the same trend of the previous year with an increase of 3.8% over 6 months, to 278.5 billion dirhams. This development comes from both individuals (+5.6 billion dirhams) and companies (+4.4 billion dirhams).
Taking into account these developments, the structure of resources appears to be improved with an unpaid share which now amounts to nearly 74%.
In addition, the Bank in Morocco reaffirmed its commitment to financing the national economy, bringing its total outstanding loans to 202.3 billion dirhams.
Finally, in a context of rising market rates, the Bank’s NBI in Morocco was impacted by a downward valuation of the trading portfolio. This decline was however mitigated by the good evolution of the margin on commissions which gained 11.7%, compared to the same period in 2021.
For their part, the subsidiaries continued to improve their contribution to consolidated NBI, bringing it to nearly 51% at the end of June 2022.
With a contribution of 25% to consolidated NBI, the international subsidiaries ended the first half with good performance. Thus, the NBI improved by 7%, thanks in particular to the recovery of intermediation activities and commissions (in particular in Benin, Congo and Madagascar) and the good performance of the treasury activity (in particular in Côte d’Ivoire). Ivoire and Cameroon).
The business subsidiaries in Morocco are not to be outdone with a 4% increase in their NBI over the first six months of 2022. At the origin and this growth, the resumption of the activity of specialized financing companies, in particular Maroc Leasing , Attawfiq Microfinance and Bank Al Yousr, as well as the good performance of Maroc Assistance International.
In total, the contribution of business line subsidiaries in Morocco stood at 26% in H1-2022.
