Banco Internacional de Comercio
Banco Internacional de Comercio (BIC) has emerged as Cuba’s winner again this year following reasonable profit growth and an impressive ROE for 2002.
Despite the sluggish global economy, which took its toll on the island, the bank eked out a 0.9% gain in net profit and finished 2002 with an ROE of 31.%%.
It also continued to strengthen its balance sheet by raising Tier 1 capital 15%, while its cost-to-income ratio was a paltry 7.1%.
José Lebredo, BIC deputy chairman, said: “A better analysis of the customers, combined with an efficient administration of resources led to a high recovery of loans and a continued adequate level of lending. This produced the high profits despite the fact that assets on the balance sheet declined somewhat.”
The bank significantly upgraded its communications network in 2002, installing a high-speed broad-band connection for data transmission and telephone communication. The upgrade has led to considerably more efficiency and lower costs.
