BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,–CIBC FirstCaribbean has released its results for the third quarter of this fiscal 2015, recording its highest quarterly net income since the second quarter of fiscal 2010.
The bank delivered solid results against its strategic objectives of accelerating profitable revenue growth and improving operational efficiency by recording net income of $34.8 million in the third quarter, up $11.4 million or 49 per cent over the prior year's third quarter net income of $23.4 million.
For the nine month period ended July 31, net income was $87.0 million, up $31.9 million or 58 per cent over prior year's adjusted net income of $55.1 million for the same period.
Total revenue during the third quarter of fiscal 2015 increased by $7.1 million compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2015. Total revenue over the nine month period was down $7.9 million year over year primarily due to lower interest earnings from loans and securities. Some countries continue to experience low credit demand, additionally interest margins on loans and securities yields were lower.
While productive loans balances are down slightly over the prior year, an improved performance over the second quarter of 2015 was recorded with $80.6 million in loan growth as a larger proportion of the sales pipeline was converted into productive loans during the latter half of this quarter. Operating expenses over the nine month period were down by $3.0 million compared with the same period last year as FirstCaribbean continues to benefit from expense control initiatives and savings from its restructuring programme.
Loan loss impairment expense was significantly lower by $43.1 million compared with the prior period's adjusted expense of $77.9 million due to an improvement in the loss experience and recovery activity. Additionally, non-productive loan balances were down 18 per cent to $651 million compared with the same period last year as efforts continue to further strengthen the quality of our loan portfolio.
CIBC FirstCaribbean continues to make a number of investments across the region pursuing its growth objectives while also demonstrating its continuing commitment to the Caribbean.