THE New Building Society (NBS), according to its financial statement for the year ending December 31, 2021, was able to garner $916.3 million in profits after earning a total of $1.94 billion in net income last year.

Based on the figures published in the February 26, 2022 edition of the Guyana Chronicle
Newspaper, the entity recorded a decline in profits from the preceding year. At the end of 2020, NBS earned $1.07 billion in profits.

In its 2020 Annual Report, the NBS Chairman, Floyd McDonald, said that the $1.07 billion was an increase of about 4.5 per cent from 2019; in 2019, NBS amassed $1.03 billion in profits.

Based on the newer financial statements, too, NBS’ net income declined marginally in 2021. Last year, the company earned $1.935 billion compared to the $1.942 billion amassed at the end of 2020.

It was noted that NBS’ total comprehensive for the year was $923.2 million.

What contributed to the lowered profits, perhaps, was the significant increase in operating expenses. At the end of 2020, the entity’s total operating expenses amounted to $871 million but at the end of 2021, that figure expanded to $1.02 billion.

The company’s operating expenses include general administrative expenses, impairments on loan assets, depreciation and other expenses.

The Financial Statements were approved for issue on February 22, 2022, by NBS’s Chairman, Vice Chairman, Seepaul Narine and Chief Executive Officer Anil Omkar Kishun.

It is important to note that McDonald had anticipated that, with the increase in construction activity ongoing across Guyana, NBS would see greater profits in the short term.

Over the past few months, however, NBS had taken several measures to relieve consumers; that included cutting interest rates on loans.

In December 2021, bank announced that from January 01, 2022, the interest rate on loans from $6 million to $15 million had been reduced from 6.25 per cent to 5.95 per cent, per annum. That is applicable to both current and new loans.

For low income loans, that is, those that are $6 million and below, the interest rate is four per cent per annum. Before that, in March 2021, NBS reduced the interest rate on loans up to $6 million to four per cent from 4.25 per cent

The rate on loans from $6 million to $12 million had been reduced to 5.95 per cent from 6.15 per cent and 6.75 per cent depending on agreement. For loans above $12 million and up to $15 million, the rate was 6.25 per cent.

The NBS, in a press statement issued in December, noted that the reductions in those interest rates would allow consumers to save millions of dollars annually. The bank noted that its efforts at providing low-cost, financing options were in keeping with a mandate to help Guyanese become homeowners.

The reduction in interest rates, it said, would put millions of dollars per annum into the pockets of borrowers which is in keeping with its mandate to ensure that Guyanese can acquire ready and low-cost financing and therefore, become homeowners.