Asset Quality

Mar 01, 2012 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Sampath Bank said December 2011 quarter net profit fell 34 percent from a year ago but a rapid growth in staff and branches should help boost profits in future despite falling interest margins.





He said 78 percent of the bank's funding was generated from deposits compared with an average of 72 percent in the industry.

"We're a more deposit-oriented and less borrowing-dependant bank in the industry."

Non-interest income for the year was stagnant at 4.9 billion rupees held back by a fall in other income despite foreign exchange gains.

Provision for bad loans was a reversal of a billion rupees compared with provision of 661 million rupees the year before.

"Growth must come without any drop in the quality of assets we are holding," Sampath Bank managing director Aravinda Perera told the news conference.

The group's December 2011 quarter net profit fell 34 percent to 887 million rupees from a year ago, a stock exchange filing said.

For the year ending December 31, 2011, Sampath Bank group's diluted earnings per share were 26.39 rupees while annual net profit rose 19 percent to 4.

2 billion rupees.

Ranjith Samaranayake, group chief financial officer and executive dir