Republic Bank witnessed an increase in its investment securities from Ghs 540 million in 2019 to Ghs 994 million in 2020.
This resulted in the increment of its total assets value from Ghs 3.3 billion in 2019 to Ghs 3.6 billion in 2020.
This meant that the bank in 2020, invested some part of its liquidity in governments securities to shore up the likely shocks the coronavirus pandemic had on the economy and the business of banking at large.
The move which some industry watchers see as a good one, is said to be one that can help reduce the risk of raising Non Performing Loans NPL’s due to loan holders(businesses and Individuals) taking a hit from the lockdowns and closer of businesses in country and across the world, move to protect and stop the spread of the virus.
But in the same period there was a decline in profit by Ghs 10.9 million according to the financial statement.
According to the bank’s 2020 Audited Financial Statement and spotted by norvanreports, profit recorded for 2020 amounted to Ghs 51.6 million from the previous profit of Ghs 62.5 million recorded for 2019.
Total liabilities for the year under review, also saw an increase of some Ghs 300 million ending 2020 at Ghs 3 billion from the 2019 figure of Ghs 2.7 billion.
Shareholders’ equity for the period also increased from Ghs 556 million in 2019 to Ghs 608 million in 2020.
In terms of he bank’s loan asset quality, Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) slightly increased from 18.16 percent in 2019 to 19.03 percent end-2020.
The bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) also deteriorated slightly by some 0.75 percentage points ending 2020 with a CAR of 26.66 percent from the 27.41 percent recorded in 2019.