The Bank’s asset base grew by 15% (MUR 20.6bn) and reached MUR 160.5bn by end of this year under review. This growth was primarily in cash and cash equivalents and due from banks and investment securities, while loans and advances and other assets were relatively stable when compared to last FY.

The bisection of the asset book sat in cash and cash equivalents and due from banks with an increase of MUR 16.5bn in 2020 as compared to the prior year. Investment securities increased by MUR 3.4bn (7%) primarily to upper possession of debt instruments at amortised cost; representing 30% of total assets.

Other assets, with its foremost component being mandatory balances with the Central Bank (MUR 2.2bn), did not experience major change. Furthermore, the proportion of the Bank’s total assets to Segment B represented 65% in 2020 which represents a slight increase when compared to 64% in 2019.

An industry analysis of the Bank's financial assets, without taking account of any collateral held or other credit enhancements, is as follows:

With the conservative approach towards its lending strategy, the Bank’s net loans and advances went up slightly by 0.4% at MUR 28.3bn this year slightly geared more towards Segment B representing 55%. Loans and advances with contractual maturities over 12 months represented 58% of total loans in 2020.

As at 30 June 2020, the Bank has restructured multiple of its loan facilities that can be aggregated to MUR 5.3bn, out of which, in line with the COVID-19 forbearance policy amounted to MUR 5.1bn.

As at 30 June 2020, the credit portfolio of the Bank had a well-variegated credit portfolio with a distributed concentration across different sectors, same is tabulated below:

Please refer to Note 41 (X) in Section B for details on segmentation.

A lower than expected loans-to-deposits (“LTD”) ratio was achieved in 2020, that is, 19% compared to 21% last year. This ratio can be further broken down into LCY at 34% and FCY at 17%. The driving force behind the falling LTD ratio is at the back of rising deposits from customers greater than the rise observed in loans and advances.

Investment securities which is held in either its trading or banking book grew by 7% to reach MUR 48.7bn as at 30 June 2020 (2019: MUR 45.3bn) with the majority investments being in Government papers both on domestic and global fronts.

The currency split as from 30 June 2020 stands as LCY MUR 17.9bn and FCY MUR 30.8bn (of which USD MUR 28.9bn).

Mandated by IFRS 9, the investment securities are categorized as follows:

• Debt instruments at fair value through profit or loss (“FVTPL”);
• Debt instruments at fair value through other comprehensive income (“FVTOCI”);
• Debt instruments at amortised cost (“AC”); and
• Equity Investment at fair value through other comprehensive income (“FVTOCI”).

A transformative technological journey can be protracted and winding, while the customary approach concerning capital investments does not upkeep fast pivots or allow the business to rapidly capitalize on innovation breaks, the Bank still has a hostile expectation for achieving significant return on investment on innovative technologies. Thus, an ample amount of our capital expenditure was channeled towards banking software, computer software and computer equipment, the key highlights for the year can be presented as follows:

For further details of property and equipment, intangible assets and rights of use assets, please refer to Note 19, 20 and 21 respectively in Section B. 

This financial year was stigmatized by two headlines concerns being the ongoing global pandemic and the classification of Mauritius in the EU blacklist. While the Bank needed to provide its clients with the optimal reassurance with the principal pledge of delivering a purpose beyond banking, the confidence of the client base in the Bank created positive ripples in this cataclysmic environment. As a result, the Bank’s deposits base grew from MUR 131.2bn end of June 2019 to reach MUR 150.9bn by the end of June 2020 i.e. a growth of 15%.

Split of customer deposits base was as follows:

• Current accounts MUR 107.5bn, that is, 71% of total deposits and 18% growth year-on-year;
• Savings accounts MUR 6.0bn, that is, 4% of total deposits and 18% growth year-on-year; and
• Fixed deposits MUR 37.4bn, that is, 25% of total deposits and 6% growth year-on-year.

ABL’s shareholders’ equity grew by MUR 0.9bn to reach MUR 8.6bn, i.e., 12%. During the year, the Bank paid MUR 576.7m as dividend (2019: MUR 333.5m) with MUR 429.3m as Ordinary dividend (2019: MUR 186.4m), representing 30% payout and MUR 147.4m Class A dividend (2019: MUR 147.1m).

On the Regulatory side, in line with the capital requirements and regulatory forbearance measures from the Central Bank, the Bank remained well capitalised with a total capital base (“TC”) of MUR 8.4bn representing an increase of 9% year-on-year along with Common Equity Tier 1 (“CET1”) of MUR 6.7bn, Tier 1 (“T1”) of MUR 8.0bn and Tier 2 of MUR 0.4bn.

Risk-weighted assets rose by MUR 6.6bn representing 14% rise year-on-year resulting from a rise in balance sheet size of the Bank.

Total CAR dropped by 70 basis points compared to last year reaching 15.15% against an unchanged regulatory limit of 12.88%, and is well above the limit. Being a Domestic Systemically Important Bank, the Bank is required to maintain an additional 1% above the regulatory limit of 11.88% for non-DSIBs.