FirstBank Bounces Back to its Leadership Position, Delivers a FantasticPerformance in 2021
As nancial market analysts continue to digest the 2021 nancial results of theFirstBank Limited, which they say reect the return of the banking conglomerate toits leadership position, Festus Akanbi writes that the regime of strongfundamentals which the robust performance represents is in tandem with theongoing restructuring being midwifed by the current board and management of thecompany The Nigerian investing community was held spellbound earlier in the week whenFBN Holdings Plc released its much-awaited 2021 !nancial statements to thepublic, showing a stellar performance, especially in its banking subsidiary, FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, which is said to be indicative of its strong recovery from itshitherto dwindling !nancial position.Banking and capital market analysts, in their immediate reactions, said theimpressive results signpost a regime of strong fundamentals after a period ofrestructuring by the leadership of its current management and board.
The Scorecard.To mitigate the e&ect of the low-interest rate on investment securities and revenuegeneration, the bank was said to have intensi!ed deposit mobilisation and fundingstrategy to support enhanced loan growth at optimised rates leading to a 5.7%increase in interest expense to N140.8 billion as against N133.2 billion in December2020.
During the period, non-interest revenue grew by 96.1% to N364.6 billion as againstN185.9 billion in the preceding year on the back of increased fees and commissionincome, treasury activities, and other operating income.
According to a report by Nairametrics, in its bid to further enhance its revenuegeneration capacity, First Pension Custodian Limited, a subsidiary of First Bank of
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