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South African consumers and businesses that have fallen on hard times due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic were the biggest drag on Standard Bank in the first six months of 2020, causing the group’s headline earnings to tank 44 percent to R7,5 billion.
The bank said that, as of June 30, it had provided R107 billion in Covid-19 client relief to its personal and business banking (PBB) customers in South Africa, which represented 18 percent of its PBB SA portfolio. It provided a further R11 billion to personal and business banking customers in its Africa Regions.
The latest financial statement of Africa’s biggest bank by assets show that had it not been for the elevated impairment provisions in its local personal and business banking division, it would have better ridden out the Covid-19 wave as its operations in the rest of Africa proved relatively resilient. While South Africa’s headline earnings declined 72 percent, Africa Region’s contribution to the group’s banking headline earnings grew to 62 percent.
Standard Bank’s banking operations faced their own struggle in South Africa, but earnings were also negatively affected by a R2,2 billion loss for its insurance business, Liberty. — Xinhua.
Online Reporter