Kazkommertsbank net income falls 70 percent in Jan-Sep

business and economy

Kazkommertsbank net income falls 70 percent in Jan-Sep

By SRI ⋅ December 1, 2009 ⋅

(SRI) - Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s largest lender, said Monday its net profit in the first nine months of the year fell to KZT14.6 billion ($97 million) from KZT49.9 billion ($333 million), a drop of more than 70 percent.

The decline reflected higher provisions against bad loans and a fall in net interest income. According to the Kazakh Financial Supervision Agency (FSA), Kazkommertsbank’s provisions against bad loans amounted to KZT615 billion ($4.1 billion), or 24.6 percent of its loan portfolio, as of October 31, 2009. Bad loans totaled KZT515 billion ($3.43 billion), or 20.6 percent of its loan portfolio.

“The bank continues with its conservative policy of building sufficient provisions for expected credit losses,” Kazkommertsbank said in a statement.

Kazkommertsbank’s net non-interest income was KZT45.2 billion ($301.3 million) in the first three quarters of this year, up from KZT5.9 billion ($39.3 million) in the same period last year.

“This substantial improvement was primarily due to income resulting from the purchase of the bank’s own debt securities of KZT23 billion, and income from operations with financial assets of KZT12.2 billion,” Kazkommertsbank said.