Co-operative Bank subsidiary Kingdom Bank has announced a 58.1 per cent growth in net profit in the first three months of year 2022 to Sh. 209.8 million.

In the same period last year, Kingdom had posted Sh. 132.7 million net profit.

This profit growth has come out of lower operating costs. Kingdom’s overall operating expenses fell 39 per cent to Sh.494.8 million in the period under review.

The bank also saw a 35.9 per cent drop in loan-loss provisioning costs to Sh.24.9 million from Sh.388.3 million. In the period under review, customer deposits rose by 23.6 per cent to Sh.6.8 billion from Sh.5.5 billion.

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At the same time, Kingdom’s net interest income eased to Sh.637.1 million from Sh.895.1 million. A 30 per cent rise in non-interest income to Sh.67.5 million however partly contained the income slump.

In March this year, Kingdom Bank, formerly known as Jamii Bora Bank returned to profitability with a net profit of Sh. 498 million from a profit before tax of Sh. 512.4 million.

This was the first time that the bank was making a full year profit in a period of five financial years. This profit exceeded the bank’s expectation of a Sh. 300 million profit that was made in June 2021. Kingdom returned to profitability within one year of being operated by the Co-operative Bank.

The bank was acquired Co-op Bank in 2020 after a 90 percent stake buyout worth Sh. 1 billion.  After the acquisition, Co-op Bank introduced a new management team and rebranded the tier III lender to Kingdom Bank.

Anthony Mburu was appointed as the new CEO of the rebranded bank in the series of changes that also saw a new board of directors appointed.