First Global’s big year

2015 was a big year for the Grace owned First Global Bank in recording a strong 39 percent increase profit after tax to $440 million over 2014. The strong growth emanated from a sharp increase in Loans and advances of 23 to $21.8 billion at the year end helping to drive interest on loans by 23 percent to $2.56 billion.
Net interest and other income amounted to $3.7 billion versus $3 billion in the previous year, for 25 percent increase.
Customer deposits grew 10 percent to $24.6 billion but interest cost grew to $566 million from $521 million for depositors.
The bank, one of the smaller one in Jamaica enjoyed growth in interest income by over 20 percent for the 2015 financial year over the 2014 as they posted interest revenue of $3.6 billion compared with $3 billion for 2014. Interest cost grew 11.3 percent from $893 million in 2014 to $992 million in 2015.
Fees and commissions recorded significant growth of 32 percent moving from $724 million to $956 million for financial year 2015. Foreign exchange gains grew 16 percent to $231 million, while gains on investment activities more than quadruple from $25 million to $116 million.
A 28 percent increase in staff costs helped to push operating expenses to $3.3 billion, for a 25 percent increase over the 2014 period. The bank’s asset grew by over 12 percent to $47 billion against $42 billion recorded for 2014 and shareholders’ equity climbed to $7.2 billion from $6.9 billion in 2014.
While profit had climbed sharply, close to half a billion, corporate taxation was ended being nil as tax free income wiped out any likelihood of a tax liability for the year.