The profits of Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI), Mozambique's largest bank, fell by 6.6% in the first half of the year to 3.453 billion meticais, according to information from the institution consulted by Lusa today.

In the financial statements for the period from January 1 to June 30, 2023, BCI says that the bank's net profit fell to 3,453 million meticais, compared to profits of 3,699 million meticais a year earlier, at the end of June 2022.

As of June 30, BCI had total assets of almost 211.5 billion meticais, namely 65 billion meticais in loans to customers, for total liabilities of 185.4 million meticais, mainly customer funds of 156.6 billion meticais.

Banco Comercial e de Investimentos' profits had risen by 55% at the end of last year, compared to 2021, to 113.3 million euros, according to the report and accounts for the same period.

In the message contained in the document for the first half of 2023, BCI's management states that despite the "adverse scenario", the bank maintained its "market leadership", reaching almost 2.2 million customers, "after having focused on improving service, consolidating activity and generating value for customers, society, the country and shareholders".

It also points out that BCI, with 2,712 employees and 211 branches throughout the country, "continues to be the largest bank operating in the Mozambican financial system", in terms of turnover (credit and deposits) and assets, "with market shares in 2022 amounting to 24.25% in credit, 25.41% in deposits and 23.68% in assets".

According to the 2022 report and accounts, at the end of 2022 the bank had a net profit for the year of 8,078 million meticais, an increase of 55.25% compared to a profit of 5,203 million meticais in 2021 and also compared to 2,671 million meticais in 2020.

The 2022 performance is justified in the document by "extraordinary positive and negative effects" relating to last year and previous years.

BCI has a share capital of 10 billion meticais, in a shareholder structure led by Caixa Participações, of the Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) group (51%), the Portuguese bank BPI (35.67%), and directly by CGD (10.51%), among others.

The board decided to apply 30% of the 2022 profits in legal reserves, equivalent to more than 2,423 million meticais, distributing the remaining 70%, more than 5,654 million meticais in dividends to shareholders. (Lusa)