The Board of Directors of National Bank of Pakistan “NBP” “the Bank” met on Thursday to approve the annual financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2023. NBP, the Nation’s Bank, has marked yet another year of robust financial outcomes, achieving a pre-tax profit of PKR 101.3 Bn, presenting a 61.4% increase from the preceding year’s PKR 62.7 Bn. The Bank navigated a challenging macro environment, sustaining its support to customers in line with its Vision.
This year witnessed the creation of total stakeholders’ value amounting to PKR 1,065.3 Bn, doubling the PKR 540.0 Bn of the previous year. A 35.4% surge in average earning assets, coupled with margin expansion on the back of higher average policy rates, generated gross interest revenue of PKR 1,024.7 Bn — 103.6% higher than PKR 503.3 Bn for 2022.
Healthy growth was achieved in all income streams being Advances (PKR 221.8 Bn, 57% up), Investments (PKR 774.0 Bn, 122% up), and Placements (PKR 28.9 Bn, 112% up). Pursuant to an effective fund mobilisation, average interest bearing liabilities of the Bank reached PKR 5,267.8 Bn (2022:PKR 3,871.9 Bn). In the backdrop of higher average interest rate, PKR 855.9 Bn was paid to the providers of funds in terms of cost of funds. Accordingly, the Bank’s net interest income for the year closed at PKR 168.7 Bn, depicting a YoY increase of 44.4%.
Despite lower trade activity amidst a challenging & uncertain business environment, the Bank achieved a 10.7% growth in its non-fund income stream that amounted to PKR 40.6 Bn (2022:PKR 36.7 Bn). While equity investments of the Bank generated dividend income of PKR 5.3 Bn (2022:PKR 5.2 Bn), income under fee & commission stream amounted to PKR 22.0 Bn (2022:PKR 21.2 Bn), and are reflective of the Bank’s widespread customer base and market outreach. The Bank’s FX income for the year closed at PKR 7.1 Bn which is slightly lower than PKR 7.4 Bn for the prior year due to adverse impact on account of forward exchange contracts rates. Whereas, given the bullish trends of the stock market during most days of the years, the Bank generated, mostly through its equity portfolio, capital gains of PKR 4.4 Bn, depicting a 285% increase over PKR 1.1 Bn of the corresponding year.
