Royal Bank mulls mortgage finance

leveraging on a strong capital base as it seeks to stake a claim among the best local banks.
Among the exciting new products the bank is considering is the most sought after mortgage finance that will certainly receive a huge market response.
Royal Bank said it would focus on strengthening capitalisation levels and also take advantage of its growing branch network and skills to reach out to customers.
Chairman Dr Peter Chikumba is positive the bank will mount strong competition in the sector to benefit from the current economic stability and growth.
Against this innovative new product strategy Royal Bank has engaged potential investors to bolster its US$5,6 million tier 1 capital to regulatory levels.
Royal Bank said its tier 1 capital was composed of share capital, share premium and accumulated costs and discussions with potential investors were advanced.
“The bank is also set to launch branchless banking products, mortgage finance, microfinance and other products, which will result in the bank gaining significant share and posting positive results in the future,” said Dr Chikumba.
The bank has only been operational since February this year when it opened one branch, but the branch network grew rapidly reaching 12 by May.
But despite pre-opening preparations gobbling US$900 000 in expenses the bank recorded a comprehensive loss of only US$1,5 million for the period to June.
It is against this background that Dr Chikumba applauded management for maintaining costs under a tight rein as the losses could have been worse off.
Expectations now are that the bank will secure new investors to inject fresh capital in line with Reserve Bank capital threshold of US$12,5 million.