BY PETER EGWUATU

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, weekend, stated that the banking industry recorded N300.5 billion unaudited profit for the half year 2013, representing a 22.95 per cent increase over the N244.4 billion achieved in the second half of 2012.

This was contained in the six month Financial Stability Report, FSR, ended June 2013 released by the apex bank.

The report stated that its interest income, which increased by 13.47 per cent, largely accounted for the higher profit level.

The industry liquidity ratio stood at 67.8 per cent compared with 68.0 per cent at end-December 2012.

According to the CBN “All banks met the 30 per cent minimum regulatory liquidity ratio throughout the review period.

During the review period, the CBN executed an Memorandum of Understandinmg, MoU, with the Bank of Tanzania, and was in discussions with the Central Bank of Sudan and the Swiss Financial Market Authority with the aim of executing MoUs on supervision and information sharing.

The CBN report further indicated that as at end-June 2013, ten 10 banks had complied with the requirement for divestment from non-banking activities, in line with the Regulation on the Scope of Banking Activities and Ancillary Matters. Six of the compliant banks were issued with commercial banking licences, while four were being considered for the issuance of licences.