Here’s what drives bank performance

Article Excerpt

The profitability of banks is determined by a variety of factors including their business mix, lending profit-margins, loan and deposit growth, bad debts, and cost management. The top-performing banks consistently find the right balance between these factors, leading to strong results and stock market performance. Lending margins drive profits A key driver of bank profits is their net interest margins—that’s the difference between the interest rate that a bank charges on loans it issues and the interest rate that it pays to depositors and other providers of funds to the bank. In a rising interest rates environment, banks normally manage to increase their net interest margins—as long as the increase in the cost of funding lags the higher pricing of their loans to customers. Banks that derive a large portion of their revenues from their lending activities benefit relatively more from improving their lending margins. An example of a bank with a very large portion of its revenue from lending is Canadian Western Bank…