Citing his excitement to share the progress of NCB Financial Group (NCBFG), chairman Michael Lee-Chin highlighted the progress the financial conglomerate has made since a reshuffling of top executives a year ago.

Offering opening comments on the performance of NCBFG during its earnings call on Friday (August 9), Lee-Chin said that stability was the major achievement over the last four quarters.

“[We] stabilised in terms of efficiency, to make sure that our governance was robust and strong, and also stabilised in terms of the customer experience,” he explained.

NCBFG reported that net operating income for the third quarter of financial (FY) 2023/24 amounted to J$28.93 billion. While this was less than the total reported in the previous, it was shy of two per cent more than the comparable quarter in FY 2022/23.

Although revenues from NCB’s banking and investment activities declined by 14 per cent, it was offset by 51 per cent growth in revenues from Guardian Life Limited.

Over the last nine months, NCBFG’s net operating income grew to J$94.18 billion when compared with J$84.25 billion reported in the same period a year before.

Net revenue from insurance activities jumped significantly to J$36.9 billion for the period under review from J$24.7 billion for the nine-month period of 2023.

NCB’s total assets increased by four per cent to J$2.3 trillion with customer deposits increasing to j$769 billion. Loans also registered a six per cent climb to J$637 billion. The consumer and SME line contributed J$1.4 billion to operating profit.

Lee-Chin, noting that the two companies form a unique combination, asserted that “it’s for us now to make sure we capitalise on those two entities under one roof”. He further pointed out that both the financial group’s investment and banking entity and its insurance business are scalable, but that can only be accomplished by reducing the group’s cost-revenue ratio.

For the three months ended June, net operating expenses of J$21.15 billion were five per cent lower than in the year before. Over the nine months, expenses climbed from J$68.24 billion to J$69.07 billion.

“Banking and insurance have one thing in common: they’re basically commodity-type businesses. And as is the case with any commodity type business, the winner is the lowest cost producer, and to become the lowest cost producer, you have to have scale,” Lee-Chin stated.

“Both Guardian and NCB have scale. So we have the potential to be the lowest cost producer and I’m here to say not only do we have potential, but that is our mission – to be the lower cost producer,” he added.

Looking ahead, as NCBFG shifts focus from stability to realising growth, the chairman said that the objective of the organisation is to add value to its customers by making them wealthy.

“The progression we have shown over the last four quarters in terms of efficiency, governance and customer experience is tangible evidence that the retooling of NCBFG is taking root,” mused Lee-Chin.

NCBFG posted a nine-month net profit of J$21.08 billion compared to J$11.78 billion for a similar period last year. With that earnings per share improved to $5.79, up from $3.70.

Group CEO Robert Almeida speaking at yesterday’s NCB Investor Briefing said: “ After a period of significant changes our performance has stabilised and is now poised for steady growth. This quarter’s results are evidence of our resilience and the strength of our strategies as we continue to grow core recurring earnings while reducing volatilities through robust risk management.

“We remain focused on executing our strategies with precision, adhering to our approach of 99 per cent execution and 1 per cent strategy. Our dedication to wealth creation and extracting synergies between our NCB and Guardian subsidiaries remain steadfast.”