Majority state-owned First Citizens Group Financial Holdings Ltd yesterday disclosed that it recorded audited profit after tax of $776.75 million for its financial year ended September 30, 2023. That was an increase of 5.89 per cent over the $733.50 million the Port-of-Spain-based financial holding compared earned in 2022.
The group’s 2023 profit of $776.75 million exceeds the $752 million profit after tax First Citizen declared in 2019, the full financial year before the COVID-19 pandemic depressed bank profitability.
The bank’s profit before tax for its 2023 financial year was $1.069 billion, which was 15.94 per cent more than it earned for the 2022 financial year. The First Citizens profit before tax in 2023 just exceeded the $1.063 billion it reported in 2019.
The financial holding company’s net interest income (which is the difference between the revenue generated from its interest-bearing assets and the expenses associated with paying on its interest-bearing liabilities)amounted to $1.85 billion in 2023. That is an increase of 24.54 per cent on the $1.49 billion in net interest income First Citizens reported in 2022.
The bank’s total assets declined by 1.4 per cent, dropping from $45.43 billion in 2022 to $44.79 billion in 2023. But the group’s loans to customers increased by 6.36 per cent, moving from $18.88 billion in 2022 to $20.08 billion in 2023.
Customers’ deposits increased marginally from $28.37 billion in 2022 to $28.65 billion in $28.65 billion.
The First Citizens earnings per share in 2023 totalled $3.08, which was 5.84 per cent more than the earnings per share of $2.91 in its 2022 financial year.
The bank declared a final dividend of $0.68 a share for its fourth quarter. That dividend, which will be paid on December 28, 2023, brings its dividend payout for its 2023 financial year to $2 per share. That annual dividend represents 64.93 per cent of the First Citizens earnings per share of $3.08.
The 2023 dividend of $2 per share is 25 per cent more than the $1.60 First Citizens distributed in 2022.
Apart from T&T, First Citizens has operations in Barbados, St Lucia and St Vincent in the Eastern Caribbean. The St Lucia and St Vincent operations are subsidiaries of First Citizens Investment Services (FCIS), the investment and wealth management arm of the group. First Citizens also has an operation in Costa Rica, which participates in loans that have been originated by multilateral lending agencies for customers in Latin America.
First Citizens CEO Karen Darbasie said T&T accounted for roughly 85 per cent of the bank’s balance sheet as at the end of September 2020, but that dropped to 80 per cent at the end of its 2022 financial year end.
“Our regional diversification, even though it’s based on organic growth, has resulted just over that short period, in that shift to a bigger contribution of the regional asset base to the group’s assets. It’s trending in a similar direction this year (2023). Once we publish, we’ll be able to give you the specifics on that. But the trend has continued, that much I can tell you, as our regional assets are contributing a greater and greater percentage,” said the First Citizens CEO.
