Boasting strong liquidity and good credit quality, Scotia Group Jamaica Limited expects to continue its positive growth momentum, eyeing increased results across the business during the rest of this financial year.

Speaking at a media briefing last Friday, president and CEO of the country’s second-largest bank Audrey Tugwell Henry said the outlook remains positive despite the presence of headwinds and exogenous factors which could shape final outcomes. This confidence, she said, was anchored by the institution’s commitment to maintaining solid growth across all business lines as it executes prudent risk management and efficient management of the operations assisted by its aggressive customer first and digital strategies.

“We are fully capitalised, our capital adequacy is robust and strong, and we have the appropriate liquidity to meet any kind of external shocks that may happen over the next year or so. We are also very confident that we have the expertise to manage the business. We are a strong global bank and locally we also continue to manage our operations well,” she told journalist during the virtual meeting in defence of the bank’s strong financial performance.

At the half-year mark, the group reported profit of $7.6 billion for the six months ended April 30 — $4 billion more or 108 per cent above that of the comparative period in 2022. Total revenues for the period also grew 37 per cent to total $27.2 billion. Second quarter out-turns added $4.2 billion in income.

Witnessing strong growth across its business lines as a result of what it describes as “increased interest in its products”, the bank saw total deposits further increase by 10 per cent as loans also went up 20.3 per cent and its mortgage book up 31 per cent. Strong growth was also recorded across the insurance and investment businesses while total assets at the end of the six-month period climbed to $633 billion.

Backed by its over 133-year history, Tugwell Henry said her institution, despite the harsh economic realities and other difficulties in the sector, continues to be “a strong player in the market”, armed with over 700,000 customers, a skilled team of professionals, and new innovations.

“We assess that if we continue to meet the needs of customers, manage our risk well, we will be able to go further in growing the business. We have absolutely no doubt that we can continue to provide sound financial products and services in this market and so our outlook is for continued growth,” she stated.

Having taken steps to tighten its economic and social governance (ESG) objectives, the group said it continues to give back to community funding projects around decarbonisation and those geared towards societal building, as seen by its investment in the private sector-led Project Star initiative. Through its Scotia Women’s Initiative (SWI), the bank said it has also, to date, disbursed over $400 million in loans to assist over 500 female entrepreneurs to develop their businesses.

“We’re very optimistic that the business will continue to perform well. This, as the foundation of our business, along with its philosophy and strategy, has been built on customer first. As we continue to serve our customers and manage our operations in line with our customer expectations, we are very confident that our customers will continue to choose Scotiabank as their financial service provider,” Henry said.

“We are very much focused on digital — we have been going through our digital transformation and we are very pleased with our customer’s adoption of our digital innovations, both online and mobile, which today [ranks] as our fastest-growing channels in both our retail and commercial banking business. We will continue to roll out new innovations to market and we will make the announcements as they come,” the president and CEO added, noting that its efforts to participate in the central bank’s digital currency remains a work in progress, of which results are currently on track for delivery by end of this year.