"Confirming the merit of the strategic course taken, BCI maintained, throughout 2023, the leadership of the Mozambican banking sector in the three main activity indicators, as it achieved a market share of 25.80% in credit, 25.39% in deposits and 22.89% in assets, with reference to the month of December", reads the management's message included in the report.

It adds that BCI "serves 2.3 million customers in the national market", being "the largest financial institution operating in the Mozambican financial system".

After a 55% growth in profits in 2022, to 8,078 million meticais (118.1 million euros), BCI presented a positive result for the year 2023 of 8,181 million meticais (119.6 million euros), "driven by sustainable growth in operating income, with comfortable liquidity levels and adequate control of operating costs".

From the 2023 profits, BCI's management proposed the distribution of 62.94% in dividends to shareholders, in the amount of almost 5,150 million meticais (75.2 million euros), and the remainder in free and legal reserves.

BCI has a share capital of 10 billion meticais (146 million euros), in a shareholder structure led (51%) by Caixa Participações, from the Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) group, with the Portuguese bank BPI (35.67%) and also directly by CGD (10.51%), among others.

The management explains that the 2023 result "was conditioned by the high reinforcement of impairments and provisions", in the amount of more than 1,213 million meticais (17.7 million euros), "given the bank's prudent policy in risk assessment and the need to cover" its assets.

It also adds that "both the net result of 2023 and that of 2022 were impacted by several positive and negative extraordinary effects", such as "the recovery of a significant amount of credit, which was already written off from the asset" and, negatively, "the impact of the upgrade project for the Euronet platform, namely, the increase in costs".

The report and accounts also highlight that BCI closed 2023 with 2,734 employees and 211 branches throughout the country, with customers increasing by 4.9% in one year, to 2,285,251.

BCI ended the year with a total net asset of 209,856 million meticais (3,063 million euros), an increase of 3.80%, while the volume of credit to customers grew in the same period by 4.27%, to 73,738 million meticais (1,076 million euros), while customer resources (deposits) grew by 0.43%, to 159,530 million meticais (2,328 million euros).

In 2023, the total amount of defaulted credit in BCI fell to 8,134 million meticais (3.071 million euros), corresponding to 11% of the total, but 80% covered by impairments.

The report and accounts recall that in 2023 the Bank of Mozambique "revised upwards the coefficients of Mandatory Reserves in national currency and foreign currency", to "absorb the excess liquidity in the financial system", producing a "negative effect on interest rates" of Applications in Credit Institutions and Financial Assets. In this context, BCI's financial margin amounted to 15,728 million meticais (230 million euros) in 2023, increasing by 0.15% compared to 2022.

"This performance was conditioned by the significant increase in Mandatory Reserves in January and May, which culminated in the reduction of liquidity available for applications, in exchange for the increase in non-remunerated balances with the Bank of Mozambique in national currency and foreign currency", concludes the document.

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