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These
performances somehow maintained due to the recovery
of the secondary and tertiary sectors, a cautious
budgetary policy and the disbursement of the international
financial aid are a proof of the success of the
macro-economic and structural reform programmes
agreed upon with the IMF and the World Bank since
the year 2002.
Those
reforms had a strong impact on the banking activity,
having pushed the Central Bank to:
- reduce
drastically its refinancing lines in favour
of the financial system;
-
increase the rate of the obligatory reserves,
from 7.5 % to 8.5 %;
- reinforce
the prudential measures, notably in the provision
of the compromised loans;
- while
pursuing the liberalization of its exchange
policy.
INTERBANK
BURUNDI has immediately adapted itself to that
environment of a tightened monetary policy with
the support of the strategic guidelines formulated
since 2002, essentially geared to the strict supervision
of the "credit" activity, the search
for the reserves in hard currencies in order to
support the international Banking, the establishment
of new organizational structures aiming at reducing
the operating overheads and the supervision of
the distribution network with the aim to adapt
it to the Bank's strategic vision.
Among
other actions, to name but a few, in addition
to the supervision of the credits portfolio, whose
qualitative classification has been operated since
January 2003, the Bank has deeply reflected on
the reduction of the operating overhead expenses
which resulted in the creation of a decentralized
unit in charge of the management of general services
called Futura Management Applications, FUMAP,
its acronym, with profit making as its managerial
principle.
This
management unit copes with the principle that
each entity has to be not only a centre of costs
but also a centre of profits at the service of
the global result of the Bank.
These
actions have been implemented with the aim to
improve the risk profile of the Bank through the
professionalization of the management of the banking
risks.
In
the trade area, apart from the pursuit of the
development of the network, with the establishment
of two new branches and three banking counters
fully operating, the Bank has focussed on the
reinforcement of the trading and operational efficiency
of the latter through the establishment of new
instruments and supports of control of the operations
and the supervision of the branches' credit.
In
the same time, it has improved its trading policy
geared towards the hard currencies clients with
the aim to increase the revenues thanks to its
position on the market of the operations with
the foreign trading.
The
results recorded correspond to the efforts of
management and trading activity implemented during
the year.
If
these results have increased only by 2.3 % as
compared to those of the preceding exercise, this
is mainly due to the poor economic environment
which was translated by a surplus of provisions
to cover the increase of credit risks.
We
would like to express our thanks to all those
who, within the management organs of the Bank,
the network or operational and support services,
have made their endeavours.
We
take this opportunity to urge them to increase
their strengths at work in order to maintain the
results of the Bank on the path of growth.
Indeed,
it is true that the development of a bank, its
internal and external growth, its capacity to
improve its market shares depend on the level
of its own equity and therefore on its capacity
to increase it.
Georges COUCOULIS.-
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Chairman's Statement