Rwanda Commercial Bank (BCR) has reported a rise in its profit after tax in the first six months of 2010 supported by better loan repayments and non-interest sources of funds, the bank said Wednesday.

In the period between January and June 2010, BCR’s net profits climbed by 11. 9 to Rwf961.3million compared to Rwf859.1 million that was registered in the entire 2009.
The results were announced after the bank’s board meeting.

While announcing the results, BCR’s Board Chairman, Bill Irwin also attributed the achievement to the bank’s good management team.

"We attribute the achievement to the booking of good loans, good earnings from non-interest sources plus good control on expenses,” BCR’s Managing Director, Sanjeev Anand said.

He also added that the bank has had a pretty successful half year; the profits after tax for six months is in excess of what they made in 2009.

On the operating basis, BCR’s operating profits increased by 1.5 percent from Rwf1.24 billion to Rwf1.26.

"Revenue figures held up well in the 1st half, we are well on track to achieving our 2010 budget and also achieve the budget figures in the coming year (2011),” Irwin said.

The management said that in the second half, they will roll-out new initiatives including introducing SMS banking, e-banking and also re-emphasising of the mortgage product.
Management said they had no plans of increasing the bank’s branch network but were looking up to new automated channels and relocating of branches to locations where clients need the services more.

Irwin reaffirmed that BCR is one of the most liquidity flushed banks in the market with long deposit ratio of slightly above 50 percent.

BCR is largely owned by Actis, a private equity investor in emerging markets with head offices in London while the government of Rwanda is a minority shareholder with a 20 percent shareholding.

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