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Johannesburg - Standard Bank Group [JSE:SBK], Africa's largest lender by assets, said earnings for the first four months of the year showed a slight decline as demand for credit remains weak and interest rates low.
The bank said in an operational update on Thursday that normalised headline earnings, which exclude certain one-time items, were "slightly lower" in the four months to end-April compared with a year earlier.
Standard Bank, which is fighting to cut costs and boost its revenue, said its results for the period were showing an improvement from the second half of 2010.
Net interest income, the measure of earnings from lending, continued to be hit by lower interest rates, the bank said, although net fees and commissions improved.
Credit impairments, or bad debt charges, decreased in its personal and business banking businesses.
The cost-to-income ratio, which Standard Bank has been pushing to improve, was higher from the same period a year earlier but down from the 61.7% recorded at the end of the previous year.
Shares of Standard Bank are down about 8% so far this year, compaed with a 0.3% decline in Johannesburg's Top-40 index.
Standard Bank is 20% owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
The bank said in an operational update on Thursday that normalised headline earnings, which exclude certain one-time items, were "slightly lower" in the four months to end-April compared with a year earlier.
Standard Bank, which is fighting to cut costs and boost its revenue, said its results for the period were showing an improvement from the second half of 2010.
Net interest income, the measure of earnings from lending, continued to be hit by lower interest rates, the bank said, although net fees and commissions improved.
Credit impairments, or bad debt charges, decreased in its personal and business banking businesses.
The cost-to-income ratio, which Standard Bank has been pushing to improve, was higher from the same period a year earlier but down from the 61.7% recorded at the end of the previous year.
Shares of Standard Bank are down about 8% so far this year, compaed with a 0.3% decline in Johannesburg's Top-40 index.
Standard Bank is 20% owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
