President and CEO of Scotia Group Jamaica, David Noel, has announced that the Group’s commercial loans segment, especially to the private sector, was a top-performing unit in a year in which Scotia Group reported net income of J$13.19 billion.

Total loan growth remained

strong throughout the period with a year over year increase of 13 per cent.

Commercial loans to the

private sector increased by 27 per cent when compared to the same period last

year Noel said, adding: “We believe the private sector is the engine of

economic growth and development, and Scotiabank is committed to supporting this

sector by facilitating access to credit for businesses.”

Improvement in business

performance was partially offset by lower net interest income from declining

interest rates and higher loan loss provisions due to the adoption of IFRS 9

which is a more conservative forward-looking credit loss model compared to the

previous incurred loss model under IAS 39.

However, Noel noted that credit

quality remains strong and actual delinquency is down year over year with NALs

representing 1.77 per cent of gross loans compared to 2.0 per cent last year.

Capital expenditure, going forward, he said, will include investments in infrastructure including a $500 million investment to create a state-of-the-art branch network. Renovations have also begun at the company’s head office building where it is investing $1 billion to upgrade and modernise facilities.

Total revenues for the

company, excluding expected credit losses for the year ended October 31, 2019,

was $45.18 billion and showed an increase of $2.97 billion or 7.03 per cent above

that of 2018.

For the period ended

October 31, 2019, excluding gains on the sale of a subsidiary of $753 million

that occurred in 2018, net income increased year on year by $1.17 billion or

9.75 per cent.

Net interest income after

expected credit losses for the year totalled $22.52 billion, down $767 million

or 3.3 per cent when compared to the previous year.

Net fee and commission

income amounted to $8.10 billion declining marginally by $22.29 million.

Because of this, BNS said: “customer education on alternatives to reduce fees,

and the ongoing shift to online and mobile transactions which attract lower

fees is important.”