The Bank of Mozambique announced on Friday that it had appointed its own resident inspector at Banco Internacional de Moçambique (BIM), a subsidiary of Portugal’s BCP group, to monitor the bank’s payment system and business model.
In a statement, the central bank said that resident inspector Hélder Manuel Chachuaio Muianga began his duties on 2 May, and that the decision to appoint him falls within the field of “supervision” of the banking sector, while guaranteeing that the bank “remains solid and stable” nevertheless.
“The resident inspector will, among other tasks, monitor the bank’s payment system, business model and strategy, monitor and analyse developments in the bank’s management and internal control system, and participate in relevant meetings of the collegiate bodies,” reads the statement.
Mozambique’s second largest bank, which trades under the name Millennium BIM and is also part-owned by the Mozambique state, on Friday published an apology to customers “for the various anomalies” in the use of cards, ATMs and POS “in recent days.”
These problems apparently involve Mozambique’s new interbank network and have affected several other banks, prompting widespread complaints from customers and businesspeople about payment difficulties.
“Our teams have been working intensively to resolve these problems,” reads the same message from Millennium BIM. “The situation has now been normalised and services have been restored. We will continue to monitor the situation in order to ensure their availability.”
On 31 December 2023, BIM had a share capital of 4.5 billion meticais (€65.7 million), the majority held by BCP Africa (part of the BCP group), with 66.69%, followed by the state of Mozambique (17.12%), Mozambique’s National Social Security Institute (4.95%) and the Mozambican Insurance Company (4.15%), among others.
BIM’s profits last year increased by 8.2% from the previous year, to 7.211 billion meticais (€105.3 million) from 6.613 billion meticais (€96.6 million), according to the report and accounts reported on earlier by Lusa.
The bank ended last year with 2,574 employees (up 2.8%), more than 1.9 million customers (adding more than 100,000 in one year) and 195 branches.
“Despite the challenging scenario, Millennium BIM remains solid and resilient, sustained by good governance, sound and prudent risk management and rigour in complying with regulatory standards,” reads the message from the board of directors in the 2023 report and accounts.
The bank approved a management proposal to distribute 82.5% of 2023 profits in dividends to shareholders, led by BCP, equivalent to almost 5,949 million meticais (86.9 million), with the remainder going into reserves.
BIM closed the year with total assets down 0.66% to 190.385 billion meticais (€2.781 million), while net loans to customers rose 3.29% to 44.208 million meticais (€645.7 million), customer funds (deposits) shrank 3.76% to 146.447 billion meticais (€2.139 billion), and equity rose 6.83% to €36.885 billion meticais (€538.8 million).
Of the total credit granted by BIM at the end of 2023, just over 3% was in default, compared to 7.85% in 2022.
Operating income increased by 1.4% in 2023, to 18.196 billion meticais (€265.7 million) and net interest income by 312 million meticais (€4.5 million) or 2.3% more, “influenced by the increase in the return on financial assets, although the increase in mandatory reserves,” decided by the Bank of Mozambique, “contributed to a reduction in the investment portfolio,” the report states.
BIM began operating in October 1995, as a result of a strategic partnership between Banco Comercial Português (which trades as Millennium BCP) and the state of Mozambique.
Lusa
