Nedbank’s 2026 financial year guidance remains on track despite a mixed operating environment and will be updated, if needed, at the group’s interim results.The group said on Wednesday that its financial performance in the first five months of the year reflects headline earnings that was broadly in line with management expectations at the beginning of the year.The group said global economic activity slowed in the first half of 2026, with growth expectations revised downwards as geopolitical tensions and trade disruptions weighed on confidence and investment.Diluted headline earnings per share growth for the full year is expected to remain slightly ahead of headline earnings growth given the ongoing run-rate impact of the share buybacks concluded in 2025, it said.For the first five months, Nedbank has reported an improvement in net interest income (NII) growth, strong non-interest revenue (NIR) growth and expenses that were well managed, resulting in pre-provisioning operating profit (PPOP) growth. Excluding associate income, PPOP growth was upper single digits. This growth was offset by an increase in the impairment charge and no further recognition of associate income from Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) post the sale of the group’s investment in 2025.Excluding ETI, underlying headline earnings growth was upper single digits.Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) had a good performance, supported by healthy balance-sheet growth as strong growth in Investment Banking was partially offset by slow growth in Property Finance, a low impairment charge, strong fee and commission growth and a solid trading performance, it said.Business and Commercial Banking (BCB) was negatively impacted by a one-off single client impairment which masked good underlying core business fundamentals, evidenced in better loan growth and double-digit NIR growth, supported by increased transactional client activity. Earnings in Personal and Private Banking (PPB) was impacted by lower endowment income and higher impairments, offsetting the strong momentum that continued across insurance, fee and commission income and secured lending, while expenses were tightly controlled. The group’s SADC operations in Nedbank Africa Regions increased earnings strongly, albeit off a low base.NII growth of low to mid-single digits was driven by average interest earning banking asset growth of mid-to-upper single digits, offset by a decline in the group’s net interest margin (NIM), driven primarily by the run-rate impact of interest rate cuts in 2025 on endowment income, as expected. Gross actual banking advances growth was above mid-single digits in CIB and PPB, and around mid-single digits in BCB. “We expect NII growth over the year to continue to improve to slightly above our FY2026 guidance of around mid-single digits,” Nedbank said.At the end of May, the group’s impairment charge and the annualised credit loss ratio (CLR), which is cyclically higher at the start of the year, increased period on period, with the CLR moving into the upper half of our through the cycle (TTC) target range of 60 bps to 100 bps. “Our guidance is for the group’s CLR to be slightly above the midpoint of the group’s TTC target range for FY 2026, seasonally higher in H1 2026 when compared to H2 2026,” it said.NIR growth was at upper-single digits, and is expected to remain around upper-single digits for the first half and full year, the group said.Business Day