Abbey Mortgage Plc has continued to magnify earnings, surmounting inflationary shocks that allocate as the Bank’s lower Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) its risk management strategies. The mortgage firm’s net profit rose by 11.79 percent to N856.26 million in December 2023 from N766.19 million as of December 2022.

Interest income spiked by 49.27 percent to N49.27 billion in December 2023 from N4.83 billion the previous year. However, fees and commission income were down 83.15 percent to N395.08 million. The Bank was able to reduce costs to bolster efficiency as total operating expenses were reduced by 1.70 percent to N2.31 billion even amid a challenging environment.

Over the past three years, Abbey Mortgage has been able to reduce the NPLs, which justifies good asset quality in an industry where sector players are grappling with deteriorating asset quality. The Bank has read the handwriting on the wall that the regulator will jerk up industry minimum capital requirements as it is ready for recapitalization. 

“Abbey is already working towards that, to ensure that at every point in time, we are above whatever minimum capital requirement is. The last capital raise was in 2020 where we raised circa N3 billion,” said Mobolaji Adewumi, Managing Director and CEO of Abbey Mortgage Bank.

“According to the last review, we are already at eight percent, which is far below what you will get from most mortgage banks.“

The CBN has said that the banks would have to recapitalize and we are expecting that this will not just affect the commercial banks, it will affect the microfinance banks and even the mortgage banks.

“Abbey is already working towards that, to ensure that at every point in time, we are above whatever the minimum capital requirement is. The last capital raise was in 2020 where we raised circa N3 billion,” said Adewumi.