No bonus for Absa's Ramos

Addressing a presentation of the group's results to end December‚ Ramos said: "We are reporting disappointing results. Our numbers refect a difficult year."

ABSA's results were hit by credit impairments in home loans and commercial property. Absa's home loans division recorded a headline loss of R992m versus a profit of R516m in the previous year.

A large percentage of mortages written between 2006 and 2008 "went bad"‚ chief financial officer David Hodnett said.

In the retail markets‚ business credit impairments rose 53% to R6bn compared with the previous period as mortgage impairments more than doubled to R4.4bn.

Absa on Tuesday (12 February) reported a 9% decline in diluted headline earnings per share to 1‚224.6 cents for the period, down from 1‚350.0 cents a year earlier.

Headline eanrnings were down 9% to R8.8bn.

The group's return on equity decreased from 16,4% in 2011 to 13.6% last year.

"We maintained a total dividend per share of 684 cents‚ after considering regulatory changes‚ our strong capital position‚ strategy‚ growth plans‚ and near-term business objectives‚" Absa said.

It said that higher credit impairments‚ particularly in retail mortgages and commercial property finance‚ were the principal reason for lower earnings.