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Standard Bank boosts earnings

Johannesburg - Standard Bank Group [JSE:SBK], Africa's largest lender, reported an expected 21% rise in full-year profit on Thursday helped by a decline in bad debts, and said it expected subdued growth in 2012 as it focused on cutting costs.

Standard Bank, which is 20% owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, reported diluted headline earnings of 860.4 cents in the 12 months to end-December, up from 708.6c a year earlier.

The lender had indicated earnings likely rose as much as 22%.

South African banks are rebounding as the credit outlook begins to pick up after a recession in 2009 squelched demand for loans and borrowers' ability to repay existing debt.

Rivals Absa Group [JSE:ASA] and Nedbank Group [JSE:NED] and FirstRand [JSE:FSR] announced earnings growth of above 21% last month.

Standard Bank said net interest income, a measure of earnings from lending, rose 7% to R28.83bn, compared with R26.84bn a year earlier.

Credit impairment charges, or bad debts costs, fell to R6.44bn from R7.39bn a year earlier.

The bank said in January that it lent R75bn to its South African personal and business customers in 2011, nearly 50% more than the previous year.

Shares of Standard Bank are up more than 9% so far this year, but it lags smaller rivals on Johannesburg's index of bank stocks.

 
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