NCB Financial Group is stepping up cost-cutting and operational reforms as it targets a sharp improvement in efficiency, with Chief Executive Officer Robert Almeida signalling that reducing the group’s cost-to-income ratio is now a central strategic priority.

The financial conglomerate reported a cost-to-income ratio of 72.54 per cent for the December 2025 quarter, only marginally improved from a year earlier. Almeida said the medium-term objective is to push that ratio down into the low 50 per cent range, noting that roughly 20 percentage points of the current cost base reflect inefficiencies the group is actively targeting. We’re taking steps to reduce waste across operations and strengthen oversight of technology spending, including tracking software licences across the organisation to eliminate duplication and unused capacity.

“Employees come, and employees go, and you have to keep on making sure that you’re not paying for more licences than you have staff,” he said in an example during a Mayberry Investor Forum. “Things like that in an operation of our scale… those details can add up to a lot of money, because all of a sudden you’re paying for a lot of licences.”

If systems are not cleaned up, the bank can continue paying for services no longer in use. While individually trivial, he explained that at NCB’s scale, these inefficiencies add up significantly, with further scope still remaining to be addressed. Almeida indicated that even modest efficiency gains could materially lift earnings, noting that a 10 per cent improvement in efficiency could add roughly $3.5 billion to profitability. Operational losses are another area management says sits within the bank’s control. The group is focusing on basic operational disciplines, including reconciling accounts more efficiently and reducing transaction-processing losses across high-volume payment channels.

“Something as simple as just reconciling your bank accounts and making sure that there aren’t things that you haven’t posted yet that have slipped away happens on our debit cards and happens on our credit cards. All of these things are tremendously high velocity, and if you lose a little bit here and you lose a little bit there, you just lose track of it. It adds up to a tremendous amount,” said Almeida.

He explained that in some instances, including ATM transactions or deposits under dispute, customers may be credited before funds are fully traced within the bank’s systems. At scale, these reconciliation gaps can accumulate into operational losses that remain within management’s control to fix. Stabilising core IT platforms and tightening ATM network controls are therefore part of strengthening reconciliation accuracy. In addressing these areas, Almeida said the bank has already seen improvement over the past four quarters following tighter controls introduced since early 2025.

NCB reported a net profit of $5.1 billion for the quarter on operating income of $33.5 billion and expenses of $26.2 billion. Operating expenses fell five per cent year-on-year to $26.2 billion, reflecting ongoing cost-optimisation initiatives and the absence of certain one-off operational losses recorded in the prior period. NCB’s stock closed at $42.66 on Thursday, after falling into the $30 range last year. Mayberry Investments CEO Gary Peart has, for the past year, maintained that NCB remains a stock worth holding, pointing to the Group’s book value as evidence that it is trading at a discount to its underlying worth.

He again noted that operational leakages estimated at roughly $5 billion per annum, about 30 per cent of the bank’s profit before tax, remain within management’s control, and said ongoing efficiency improvements should, in time, be reflected in the company’s share price.

“The stock is now trading at $40, so 50 per cent of the current stock price is wrapped up in operational expenses, which are totally in control of the management of the company,” according to Peart.

NCB Financial Group is looking for cost leakages across its operations as it pushes to improve profitability.