The total assets and liabilities of commercial banks stood at N36.2 trillion at the end of August 2018, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) economic report released yesterday has shown.
The figure, which is for the third quarter, represented 0.8 per cent increase over the level at end-June 2018.
The funds were sourced, largely, from mobilisaion of unclassified and foreign liabilities, and realisation of claims on the apex bank. The funds were used, mainly, for payment of matured demand deposits, accretion to reserves and extension of credit to the private sector.
According to the report, the CBN also maintained a non-expansionary monetary policy stance in August 2018, aimed at further curbing inflationary pressure. It said broad money supply (M3), on quarter-on-quarter basis, fell by 2.4 per cent to N33,607.64 billion at end-August 2018, in contrast to the growth of 2.0 per cent at end-June 2018. The development reflected, mainly, the 3.4 per cent decrease in domestic credit (net) of the banking system.
Over the level at end-December 2017, broad money supply, (M3), grew by 7.9 per cent, due to 18.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent increase in foreign assets (net) and other assets (net) of the banking system, respectively. On quarter-on-quarter basis, narrow money supply (M1), fell by 6.9 per cent, due, to 2.3 per cent and 7.7 per cent decrease in its currency outside banks and demand deposits components, respectively.Developments in banks’ deposit rates were mixed, while lending rates trended downwards in the review quarter.
Further analysis of the report showed that with the exception of the one-month and 12-months deposit rates, which rose by 0.28 and 0.07 percentage point to 9.12 per cent and 10.07 per cent, respectively, all other deposit rates of various maturities fell from a range 3.75 – 10.67 per cent to 3.65 – 9.85 per cent at end-September 2018.
