Equity Bank has reported a 14 per cent increase in its profit after tax for the full year 2017.

The bank posted Sh. 18.9 billion, which was an increase from the Sh. 16 billion it netted in the full year 2016.

Total Assets grew by 11 per cent to Kshs. 524.5 billion up from Kshs. 473.7 billion year on year with net loans growing by 5 per cent to Kshs. 279.1billion up from Kshs. 266.1 billion.

On the other hand, deposits grew by 11 per cent to Kshs. 373.1billion from Kshs. 337.2 billion as the number of customers reached 12.1 million.

According to the bank CEO Dr. James Mwangi, the profit growth was facilitated by its targeted focus area which included sections such as non-funded income, treasury, subsidiaries & diversification, strengthen liquidity, balance sheet, asset quality, innovation and digitization, and efficiencies and cost optimization.

“We believe that the future of banking is predictive capability and this is where we have set our eyes as a Group,” he said.

Digital lending constituted 94 per cent of all the loans for the year 2017. This also saw 96 per cent if all bank transactions done outside the bank.

Strikingly, during the year, its mobile platform Equitel lost market share. The bank attributed this loss due to its refusal to have gambling payments done through Equitel.