Scotiabank Guyana’s after-tax profit for 2019 was $2.25b which was 10.57% below the figure for 2018 of $2.52b.
According to its financial statements published in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, the bank’s interest income declined from $5.38b in 2018 to $5.24b in 2019.
In late 2018, Scotiabank was the target of a planned takeover by Republic Bank of Trinidad and Tobago but this move was rejected by the Bank of Guyana last year.
Scotiabank’s net interest income for 2019 was $5.02b compared to $5.16b in 2018. Interest expense was $223.6m in 2018 compared to $217m last year. Net other income for Scotiabank was $2.36b in 2019 compared to $2.48b in 2018. Total revenue for the bank was therefore $7.388b last year compared to $7.649b in 2018. Total non-interest expenses for last year amounted to $2.74b compared to $3.12b in 2018.
Net impairment loss on financial assets rose sharply to $514m last year compared to $162.3m in 2018. Profit before tax was $4.12b last year compared to $4.36 in the preceding year. Income tax expense was $1.87b for 2019 compared to $1.84b.
In the independent auditor’s report, as in the previous year, Nizam Ali and Company noted without qualifying its opinion that the Guyana Revenue Authority has issued an additional assessment for Corporation Tax liability of $1.12b for the years of assessment 2011 to 2017. The report said that the bank has appealed the GRA’s assessment, believes it will be successful on appeal and as a result no provision has been recognised for the effect of the additional corporation tax assessment.
In 2018, Scotiabank’s profit had also declined by 10% compared to 2017.
On September 24 last year, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan told Stabroek News that Cabinet was alerted to letters that BoG Governor Dr Gobind Ganga would have dispatched to the Trinidad-headquartered Republic Bank and Scotiabank “and also the letter that was written to me, indicating that having done their examination and taking all the circumstances into consideration that they [BoG] could not approve the application” of Republic Bank.
“This was discussed at Cabinet this morning and Cabinet concurred with the Governor’s pronouncement and they agreed that the reasons given were important reasons and the critical one being concentration, the risks involved and so on, AML/CFT [Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism] considerations, the lack of supervisory capacity by the bank itself; they are now building that capacity and so on. So when you take all of that into consideration, we did not feel that this application would be in Guyana’s best interest,” he added.
