First City Monument Bank (FCMB Group) Plc has delivered a strong financial performance for the first nine months of 2025, buoyed by rapid expansion across its digital businesses and sustained improvements in core banking operations.
The group recorded significant growth in revenue, profitability, and margins, underscoring the success of its digital transformation strategy and its continued ability to navigate a challenging macroeconomic environment.
Financial Performance Highlights
FCMB reported gross revenue of N828.1 billion, representing a 40.9% increase from N587.7 billion in the same period last year. This growth was largely supported by a 64.7% rise in interest income, although non-interest income fell by 33.8% due to a N54.6 billion decline in currency revaluation gains.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 19 (Feb 9 – May 2, 2026): big discounts for early bird.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Register for Tekedia AI Lab: From Technical Design to Deployment (next edition begins Jan 24 2026).
Net interest income surged by 101.9% to N350.8 billion, buoyed by an improved yield on earning assets at 21.1%. This lifted the Group’s net interest margin to 10.1%, up from 6.3% recorded in FY 2024.
Operating expenses rose by 41.3% year-on-year to N238.9 billion, driven by higher personnel expenses, regulatory costs, technology investments, and business expansion efforts. Despite this, the cost-to-income ratio improved to 55.5%, compared to 59.9% in FY 2024.
Net impairment losses also increased by 28.6% to N57.1 billion, following the exit of the CBN loan forbearance, which raised the cost of risk to 2.8% from 1.8%.
The bank’s digital business spanning Lending, Payments, and Wealth continued its strong upward trajectory, contributing 13.7% to gross earnings.
Digital Lending
Digital revenues grew by 54% year-on-year, rising from N73.6 billion in September 2024 to N113.6 billion in September 2025.
In October, the group noted that it recorded loan disbursements of over N357 billion and over 1.6 million individual loans granted in 2024 through the digital channels. FCMB, through digital lending, offers FastCash loans, Salary-plus loans for salary account holders, SME digital loans, and Nano loans.
Payments
Payments recorded a 23% (N26.1 billion) contribution to the group’s Digital Business, signalling a positive customer response to increased use of digital payments. The digital payment segment includes services available through the FCMB mobile app and FCMBOnline Business platforms, allowing for transfers, bill payments, and bulk payments.
The bank also offers specific collection platforms like FCMBCollect to help businesses manage multiple payment inflows and inventory. Other digital payment features are POS transactions, card payments, online merchant payments, USSD, and app payments.
Wealth Management
At a 2.6% (3 billion) contribution to Digital Business, the group has witnessed growth in its Asset Under Management (AUM), supported by digital innovation.
The digital wealth propositions on the FCMB app include mutual funds, digital savings, investment advisories, and asset management tools.
In its continued push for digital banking innovation, the group recently launched a digital cross-border global banking and payments platform, www.getrova.com, in the U.K. and Nigeria.
The initiative aims to enhance remittance, trade flows, and the cross-border payments platform, known as the Rova App. The group seeks to support remittances and inbound and outbound payments to and from Africa for SMEs and individuals.
Overall, the Group delivered PBT of N134.5 billion and PAT of N125.4 billion, marking year-on-year growth of 46% and 52%, respectively. Return on average equity strengthened significantly from 12.7% in FY 2024 to 22.4%, while EPS improved from N2.46 to N3.91.
Performance across divisions included:
• Consumer Finance: +78.5% PBT growth
• Banking Group: +68.8%
• Investment Management: +27.6%
• Investment Banking: -34.6% (due to an exceptional gain in FY 2024)
FCMB Group’s total assets increased to N7.23 trillion, up 2.5% from December 2024. Loans and advances declined by 2.9% to N2.29 trillion due to currency impacts, write-offs, and concentrated paydowns. The Group closed the period with an NPL ratio of 5.2% and a capital adequacy ratio of 17.8%.
The Group noted that its digital banking initiatives have significantly enhanced operational efficiency by automating key processes, reducing manual workload and costs, and supporting improved margins.
Customer deposits rose by 2.3% to N4.40 trillion, with low-cost deposits increasing by 17.6% while term deposits declined by 18.4%. The mix of low-cost deposits improved to 66.1%, up from 57.5% in FY 2024.
Assets Under Management grew by 15.9% to N1.59 trillion, while Investment Banking transaction value surged by 285%, reaching N3.4 trillion compared to ?877 billion in the prior-year period.
Outlook
With expanding margins, increasing customer activity, scalable digital growth, and solid risk fundamentals, the FCMB expects to maintain strong profitability and a resilient capital position as it heads into 2026.