20/05/2004 12:29
BOC Chairman, Solon Triantafyllides left the possibility open on Wednesday to proceed to the payment of a dividend for 2004. According to Mr. Triantafyllides, the issue will be reexamined under certain terms and conditions on the third quarter of 2004 and “if the full year results are similar to the three-month results, the Bank might consider granting an interim dividend”.
At the Annual General Meeting of the Bank of Cyprus held on Wednesday, a large number of BOC shareholders put questions to Mr. Triantafyllides, but expressed their discontent on the statements of the BOC Chairman during his report on the final results of the Group for 2003 and the prospects for 2004.
It was impressive, however, the fact that Mr. Triantafyllides read his statements from a written text that he had previously prepared.
Responding on the questions and criticisms made by the shareholders on the Bank’s policy for the bad debts, Group General Manager, Yiannis Kypri said: “We may say with certainty that in May 2004 there are no accounts for which we can express doubts on their collectability and that cannot be covered by the total provisions expected in a banks’ portfolio”
“We are very close to say that provisions for bad debts will fluctuate to 1.1% of the portfolio, as this will be shaped by the end of the year”, Mr. Kypri added.
Mr. Kypri also said that according to the announcements made by other banks, the non performing loans (npl) will fluctuate between 10.2 and 10.3, such as the npl of the Bank of Cyprus. These data, however, do not concern the entire banking system.
What happened in 2003?
On the questions concerning the second half of 2003, Mr. Kypri said that the provisions for bad debts were affected by the climate, which affected our clients, the stock exchange and the BOC portfolio.
In late 2003, when it became clear that there were no hopes, BOC carried out a study and evaluation of the Groups’ loan portfolio, which took into consideration the ongoing recession in the Cyprus and European economy, the extended subdued climate in the CSE and the introduction of stricter regulations by the Central Bank for the suspension interest recognition.
“Therefore, we proceeded to large provisions for bad debts, which stood almost at 2% of the portfolio”, Mr. Kypri concluded.
At the Annual General Meeting of the Bank of Cyprus held on Wednesday, a large number of BOC shareholders put questions to Mr. Triantafyllides, but expressed their discontent on the statements of the BOC Chairman during his report on the final results of the Group for 2003 and the prospects for 2004.
It was impressive, however, the fact that Mr. Triantafyllides read his statements from a written text that he had previously prepared.
Responding on the questions and criticisms made by the shareholders on the Bank’s policy for the bad debts, Group General Manager, Yiannis Kypri said: “We may say with certainty that in May 2004 there are no accounts for which we can express doubts on their collectability and that cannot be covered by the total provisions expected in a banks’ portfolio”
“We are very close to say that provisions for bad debts will fluctuate to 1.1% of the portfolio, as this will be shaped by the end of the year”, Mr. Kypri added.
Mr. Kypri also said that according to the announcements made by other banks, the non performing loans (npl) will fluctuate between 10.2 and 10.3, such as the npl of the Bank of Cyprus. These data, however, do not concern the entire banking system.
What happened in 2003?
On the questions concerning the second half of 2003, Mr. Kypri said that the provisions for bad debts were affected by the climate, which affected our clients, the stock exchange and the BOC portfolio.
In late 2003, when it became clear that there were no hopes, BOC carried out a study and evaluation of the Groups’ loan portfolio, which took into consideration the ongoing recession in the Cyprus and European economy, the extended subdued climate in the CSE and the introduction of stricter regulations by the Central Bank for the suspension interest recognition.
“Therefore, we proceeded to large provisions for bad debts, which stood almost at 2% of the portfolio”, Mr. Kypri concluded.
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