Nairobi - Kenyan lender CFC Stanbic Bank posted a 41 percent drop in first-quarter pretax profit, hit by a jump in operating expenses.
CFC Stanbic, majority owned by Standard Bank Group [JSE:SBK], joined National Bank (NBK.NR: Quote) in bucking the trend among top banks, which posted double-digit profit growth for the period.
Total operating expenses rose 28.5% to 1.62bn shillings ($18.7m), leading to pretax profit of 506 million, the bank said on Thursday.
Analysts expect Kenyan banks to post higher earnings this year on the back of economic growth and aggressive cost controls among the big lenders.