P. Zimunya

Managing Director

Introduction

CBZ Bank maintained its position as the biggest Bank in the market in terms of deposits, total assets and advances market share. The Bank recorded commendable growth in total assets and deposits during the period under review. This was achieved despite the continued deterioration in the operating environment.

Financial Performance

Total assets grew by 5.4% from $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion as at 31 December 2016. The growth in total assets was driven by a 5.0% growth in deposits from $1.65 billion to $1.73 billion during the same period. The Bank’s gross advances declined by 2.43% from $953 million to $930 million, as the Bank sought to enhance the quality of its earnings and assets. The improvement in asset quality and asset mix resulted in a commendable decrease in the charge for bad debts by 11.2% from $22.1 million in 2015 to $19.6 million in 2016 and a marginal decrease in the non-performing loans ratio from 7.7% to 7.3%.

The Bank’s continued emphasis on cost reduction and containment strategies have begun to bear fruit with operating expenditure declining by 8.8% from $86.2 million in 2015 to $78.6 million for the year 2016. Despite the current harsh economic environment and resultant reduced margins in interest rates and transactional charges exerting adverse pressure on the Bank’s revenue generation capacity, the Bank’s investment in new channels with low cost products minimised the ultimate decline in total revenue from $139.7 million in year 2015 to $118.3 million in the year 2016. The Bank’s profitability fell by 28.6% from $26.2 million to $18.7 million, in line with the decline in total revenue.

DIVISIONAL PERFORMANCE

Retail

The number of banking transactions increased by 85% from 15.2 million in year 2015 to 28.0 million in year 2016. The Bank also witnessed a 51% increase in the number of clients from 243,593 in 2015 to 367,029 in 2016 representing 15% of the country’s total banked population. This is testimony of the continued confidence that the banking public has in the Bank. Uptake of the Bank’s mobile app, CBZ Touch, continued to increase with total active users standing at a healthy 225 000 since the launch in April 2016.

CBZ Custodial Services

The portfolio grew by 59% from $191 million at the end of 2015 to $304 million by the end of 2016. Income grew by 48% during the same period. Going forward, one of the key strategic objectives for the Division is to penetrate the regional market. Further, there is also scope to grow the business through targeting local pension funds and forming strategic alliances with the Group’s other SBUs such as Mortgage Finance, Properties, Insurance, Risk Advisory and Asset Management. Product development and enhancement remain key in order for customers to enjoy the CBZ One stop shop model.

Credit Administration and Corporate Banking

The Bank remained the market leader in terms of advances market share, but had to exercise restraint in growth of the advances portfolio given the liquidity crunch and the harsh economic environment that prevailed in the year 2016. The Bank, however, continued to support. The productive sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and mining, in order to stimulate economic activity in the country and
also promote exports. Some slow moving and non- performing credit exposures were also transferred to Zimbabwe Asset Management Corporation, for rehabilitation under extended loan tenures.

Agribusiness Division

The Division managed to decentralise staff to all provinces in the country, thereby making credit delivery and advisory services to farmers readily available. Going forward, monitoring of financed projects will be intensified to offer farmers with timely interventions and reduce the probability of loan defaults.

Home Loans Division

CBZ Bank has been actively participating in the development of low-cost housing; in support of the key area of the Government’s 5 year developmental framework, ZIMASSET (Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation); that identified a deficit of 1.2 million housing units in the economy. During the period under review the Bank successfully commenced the development and sale of the Victoria Falls housing scheme with a total of 1 309 stands.

Performance Awards

During the year 2016 the Bank received various awards in recognition of the role it continues to play in enhancing access to financial services and pursuit of its vision of being the preferred provider of financial solutions in Zimbabwe with a global reach. The Bank received a number of awards during the year which are listed on page 22.

Compliance and Risk Management

The Bank continues to balance the need to enhance profitability and risk management. Consequently, the Bank has already complied with the minimum regulatory capital threshold for Tier 1 Banks of $100 million required by the year 2020. The regulatory capital for the Bank stood at $154 million as at 31 December 2016. Further, the Bank had a capital adequacy ratio of 22.3% versus the 12% required by the Central Bank. The Bank’s liquidity ratio was a healthy 76.7% versus the minimum regulated ratio of 30%.

Credit Rating

The Bank maintained its strong long term credit rating of A and short term rating of A1. The Bank is rated by the Global Credit Rating Company of South Africa.

Outlook

The economic environment is expected to remainchallenging. However, the Bank will seek to identify and exploit niche areas, supported by its customer base and technologies to enhance transactional banking and non-interest income. Further, the Bank will continue to unlock value from its land bank and portfolio of financial securities.

Appreciation

Finally, I would like to extend my appreciation to our key stakeholders, including but not limited to our clients, regulators, the Board, Management, the Shareholder and staff for their support during the year 2016.

Peter Zimunya
Managing Director
23 February 2017