Interest income surge lifts FCMB earnings to N828bn

A 64.7 per cent growth in interest income has driven the gross earnings of the FCMB Group to N828.1bn as of the end of the first nine months of 2025.

According to its earnings release filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Friday, the financial services company said that the N828.1bn was a 40.9 per cent growth from N587.7bn for the same period in the prior year.

The PUNCH reports that the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has maintained a hawkish stance for most of this year as it sought to get a handle on inflation, which has been on a decline in the last six months.

The MPC held the benchmark rate at 27 per cent at its last meeting of 2025. The high-interest environment is a boon for lenders while detrimental to the real sector, which has been lamenting about the impact on its operations.

For the FCMB Group, while interest income has risen, non-interest income declined by 33.8 per cent, driven by a N54.6tn year-on-year decline in currency revaluation gains.

“Our digital business, comprising Lending, Payments, and Wealth, continued to record strong growth across revenue lines, transaction volumes, and transaction value, with digital now contributing 13.7 per cent to gross earnings. This resulted in a 54 per cent y-o-y growth in digital revenues from N73.6bn as of September 2024 to N113.6bn for the period ended September 2025, with Lending contributing 74.4 per cent, Payments 23.0 per cent, and Wealth 2.6 per cent.

“Net interest income grew by 101.9 per cent from N173.8bn in the prior year, to N350.8bn at the end of September 2025. The yield on earning assets improved to 21.1 per cent, resulting in a growth in Net Interest Margin to 10.1 per cent for 9M 2025 from 6.3 per cent as at FY 2024. Operating expenses grew by 41.3 per cent y-on-y to N238.9bn for the period ended September 2025, with over 70% of the cost growth due to increased personnel costs, regulatory costs (AMCON & NDIC), technology costs, and investments in business expansion,” read part of the earnings disclosure.

Also, net impairment loss on financial assets grew by 28.6 per cent year-on-year to N57.1bn as its banking subsidiary exited the CBN loan forbearance.

This resulted in a growth in the cost of risk to 2.8 per cent from 1.8 per cent recorded for FY 2024.

“Overall, PBT and PAT grew by 46 per cent and 52 per cent year-on-year to N134.5bn and N125.4bn, respectively. Total assets increased by 2.5 per cent to N7.23tn at the end of September 2025 from N7.05tn at the end of December 2024. Loans and advances declined by 2.9 per cent to N2.29tn at the end of September 2025 from N2.36tn at the end of December 2024, impacted by currency revaluation, loan write-offs, and concentrated paydowns. NPL closed at 5.2 per cent and Capital Adequacy at 17.8 per cent,” said the group.

Providing an update on its ongoing recapitalisation exercise, the group affirmed that its banking subsidiary will be recapitalised ahead of the 2026 deadline.

“We have successfully concluded our public offer and are on track to complete the minority subsidiary sale by the end of December. Subject to CBN capital verification (currently ongoing), shareholder approval at the EGM, and the required regulatory consents, we are positioned to deliver the N500bn capital target ahead of the March 2026 deadline for our banking subsidiary, FCMB Limited.

“The Group is positioned to sustain strong financial and operational performance, driven by expanding margins, increased customer activity, and scalable digital growth. With our recapitalisation programme on track and risk fundamentals remaining solid, we expect to maintain healthy profitability and a strong capital position going into 2026.”