Provision Pattern

Feb 14, 2012 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Seylan Bank December 2011 quarter net profit rose 72 percent to 664 million rupees from a year ago, helped by lower loan loss provisioning.





Interest income rose 12 percent to 4.2 billion rupees while interest expenses rose at a faster 15 percent resulting in net interest income going up by almost 10 percent to just over two billion rupees.

The bank's interest margin fell to 4.

90 percent as at December 31, 2011 from 5.

69 percent a year before, according to a stock exchange filing.

Seylan Bank group non-interest income in the December 2011 quarter fell 12 percent to 633 million rupees despite a sharp rise in foreign exchange income, which went up 78 percent to 195 million rupees.

Other income fell 28 percent to 438 million rupees.

Earnings per share for the December 2011 quarter rose 50 percent to 8.

70 rupees.

The interim accounts of Seylan Bank, formerly part of the troubled Ceylinco group, showed loan loss provisions were a 310 million rupee write-back, up 322 percent from the year before, while specific provision fell 61 percent to 167 million rupees.

"Emphasis on recoveries and restructuring of non-performing deb