---

 5Best ever profitability with PAT increasing 89.9% 5Impressive Rs 1 tn Balance Sheet 5Group Profit before Tax exceeds Rs.21bn 
 

---

People’s Bank closed 2014 with an impressive performance, attesting that it continues to remain the ‘Pulse of the People’.  
Posting the milestone of Rs 1 trillion in its balance sheet, only the second bank in Sri Lanka to do so, People’s Bank also notched the best profitability for a year end, since its inception in 1961.  
Augmenting its balance sheet of Rs 1 trillion, this year’s Profit Before Tax inclined  67.2 percent to stand at Rs 17,231 million, while Profit After Tax was pushed upwards by an impressive 89.9 percent displayed at Rs 14,219 million.   The Bank’s financial performance for 2014 is unequivocally impressive.  Net Interest Income is posted at Rs 30,118 million, while the Net Interest Margin reached 3.1 percent, despite the entire banking industry battling the downward pressure exerted on interest rates.  Gross Interest Income reached Rs 84,480 million, compared to Rs 110,441 million last year, primarily due to this decline in interest rates, coupled with the downsizing of the pawning portfolio. Interest Expense stands at Rs 54,362 million against last year’s Rs 73,791 million with the decrease attributed to the cascading impacts of declining interest rates and replacing of higher cost deposits with low cost saving deposits growth. 
Observing the details of the impressive Rs 1 trillion balance sheet, Gross Loans and Advances reached Rs 685,310 million by end 2014, indicating an incline of 0.6 percent.  With the permeating global gold crisis impacting the pawning industry significantly from 2013 onwards, the Bank was prudent and instituted some dynamics to decrease its exposure which emerged at 16.6  percent in 2014 of the total Gross Loans, which in 2013 stood at a high of 28.9 percent.  Pawning balance reached Rs 113,946 million indicating a reduction of Rs 83,183 million in comparison to last year.  The Bank focused emphatically on broadening its lending portfolio, heralding an increase to 87,026 million in lending to other customers.  
With probably the country’s largest savings base now exceeding Rs 318 billion with increasing customer confidence, deposits reached Rs 793,342  million indicating a 4.1 percent improvement over 2013.  
Commenting on the groundbreaking results, Chairman Hemasiri Fernando said, “Possessing one of the largest customer bases in Sri Lanka of over 16 million, the Bank has proven repeatedly that its unique brand of ‘banking by the people, for the people’ is the formula to its success.  We also continue being the most accessible bank in Sri Lanka, possessing the widest branch network.”   CEO/General Manager N. Vasantha Kumar adds that, “Being a state owned bank,  we have an ingrained responsibility to ensure that our stakeholders’ trust and confidence is consistent, strong and enduring.  This means, that our focus should not only centered on a quantitative sense, though important, as seen in our impressive results, but also in the qualitative dynamics we continue to infuse through the decisions we make.  Whatever we do,  the impact on our stakeholders must be positive.”
The Chairman who has an ambitious yet achievable vision for People’s Bank, given it’s repeatedly proven prowess at being a champion and leader, has earmarked the Bank to be the Most Digitalised Bank in Sri Lanka.  “As we observe, both the country and the world is undergoing transformation and the Bank has remained abreast of those transformations.”