So far, four of the Tier-1 banks have published their 9-month earnings; these are ACCESS, GUARANTY, UBA, and ZENITH. As expected, the relatively lower yield environment had a profound impact on the performance of these banks. Though their relative sizes and liquidity ratios continued to determine earnings sensitivity to interest rate dynamics.

Our review of the 9M-18 financial scorecards of these top-four Banks indicated that while Deposit growth sustained momentum(up 8.3%YTD on average) as observed in Q2-18, the drive to expand their loan books remained muted. Loans and advances fell 5.6%YTD on average among the four Banks while the deployment of funds to government securities was sustained. Yet, interest income growth remained constrained, averaging 3.5% as the yields on government securities
remained lower compared to the prior year. Additionally, net interest margin was pressured by higher cost of funds, while interest expense jumped across the board (except for ZENITH).

Asset quality, however, improved generally, with loan loss provisioning witnessing further moderation (tumbling 50.6%y/y amid improved outlook), especially in relation to the upstream oil sector, which might have resulted in a significant amount of write-backs. Interestingly, non-interest income (NII) growth was divergent with GUARANTY reporting an outstanding NII performance. Although PBT growth appeared constrained, the banks remained significantly profitable and well
capitalized as the average annualized ROE for the 4 banks improved from 21.0% to 22.4%.

SOURCE: https://brandspurng.com/daily-insight-9-month-earnings-overview-of-4-top-tier-1-banks/