Information published by the Central Bank of Belize this week indicates that four of the five commercial banks operating in the country have turned a profit for the first quarter of 2009, even amid the downturn in economic activity that saw leading sectors like tourism, and wholesale and retail trade, contract.
The Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) reported last week that the Belizean economy had contracted by 2.2% in real terms when compared with the same period of 2008. The sector that performed the best was, however, “private business and financial services,” which the SIB reported as having grown by 10.4 % — its best performance since the same quarter in 2003.
The only bank that didn’t fare off well was the Alliance Bank, showing a half-a-million dollar loss for January to March.
The Belize Bank is registering top “current year profits” at $18.7 million, followed by Scotiabank with $11.6 million.
For the first quarter of 2009, however, Scotiabank registered top net income of $7 million, outdoing the nation’s largest bank, the Belize Bank, by $4.5 million.
Belize Bank reports $21 million in total expenses, while Scotia reports total expenses of $12.2 million.
The Belize Bank collected the highest interest income for the quarter—an estimated $18.9 million, while Scotia earned a reported interest income of $17.6 million. Atlantic Bank reported $11.8 million in interest income while First Caribbean International reported $6.8 million and Alliance Bank $3.7 million.
The Belize Bank is the only one of the five banks that reports NIL for business tax payments for the first quarter, January to March. All other banks recorded business tax expenses, ranging from $267,000 in the case of Alliance Bank to $2 million in the case of Scotia Bank.
The banks each hold tens of millions in excess of the statutory liquid assets, although the net loan to deposit ratios range from a high of 98.24% in the case of Belize Bank to 73.67% in the case of Atlantic Bank.
According to the Central Bank, commercial banks lend not just out of moneys deposited by customers, but also from moneys they borrow from other local, as well as foreign, lenders.
Commercial banks in Belize hold a grand total of $2.4 billion in assets, and just under $2 million in deposits.
The Belize Bank holds a big chunk of those assets, reported at nearly a billion dollars, with over $700 million in total deposits.
Scotia is next in line with $630 million in assets and over $500 million in total deposits.
The Central Bank says that the figures it has published were obtained from returns that the commercial banks had submitted.