Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya has issued a profit warning for the financial year ending December 31, 2020 citing economic challenges brought about by the novel Covid-19 disease.
“It has been a challenging year with the protracted health pandemic and economic crisis and against this backdrop, SCBK’s current performance forecast indicates a substantial decline in the profit after tax for the year ending 31 December 2020 compared to the prior year, ” StanChart bank’s board chair Patrick Obath stated.
However, the bank says its balance sheet has stood strong with strong capital and liquidity throughout the period.
The board also hopes that clients’ demand will increase over the course of 2021 as Kenyans get back to normal day to day activities and global economies open.
“With the recent announcements of COVID-19 vaccines, global business sentiment has improved,” the firm said in a statement.
Standard Chartered had reported a 31.2 percent net profit drop in the half year ended June 2020 on higher provisions for coronavirus-related defaults and reduced income from loans. The lender also reported that profit dropped 30.4 per cent to to Sh4.3 billion for the nine months to September.
Standard Chartered Bank recently announced that it is cutting off 200 jobs which is 14.3 percent of its workforce as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit bankers’ profits hard.
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