Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), the financial services holding company behind Guaranty Trust Bank Limited, one of Nigeria’s tier-one banks, generated ₦55.01 billion from charges associated with customers maintaining their bank accounts and transferring money in the first nine months of 2026.
The earnings, which reflect the fees customers pay for accessing everyday banking services, were disclosed in the group’s unaudited financial statements for the period ended September 30, 2026, approved on Tuesday, October 27, and reviewed by TechMedia Africa.
The disclosure comes as GTCO recorded a 2.32% decline in pre-tax profit to ₦879.90 billion, compared with ₦900.80 billion in the corresponding period of 2025, as rising funding costs weighed on earnings.
How much customers paid to maintain accounts and transfer money
For many bank customers, keeping an account active and moving money between accounts comes with charges that may appear small individually but add up across millions of transactions and accounts.
However, when this is collected across millions of it customers, and numerous transactions in the period under review, GTCO generated ₦38.01 billion from account maintenance charges alone between January and September 2026, representing a 6.2% increase from the ₦35.79 billion earned in the same period of 2025.
In other words, the group earned an additional ₦2.22 billion from charges associated with maintaining customers’ accounts, making it the larger contributor to the combined ₦55.01 billion.
Beyond maintaining accounts, customers also incur fees when transferring money, depending on the type of transaction and applicable banking charges.
GTCO earned ₦17.00 billion from transfer-related charges during the period, although this was 8.1% lower than the ₦18.50 billion generated in the corresponding nine months of 2025.
Despite the decline in transfer-related earnings, the two categories still brought in slightly more revenue than a year earlier, showing how routine banking activities remain an important source of income for the group.
Together, account maintenance and transfer charges accounted for approximately 25.8% of GTCO’s ₦213.55 billion in fee and commission income, which also includes earnings from electronic banking, foreign exchange transactions and other financial services.
GTCO cuts technology expenses by 8% as e-business income jumps 41%
While customers continued to pay for account maintenance and money transfers, GTCO also recorded substantial growth in the income generated through its electronic banking services.
The group’s e-business revenue rose by 40.6% to ₦60.81 billion in the first nine months of 2026, compared with ₦43.25 billion in the corresponding period of 2025.
This means electronic banking brought in an additional ₦17.56 billion, highlighting its growing contribution to the fees GTCO earns from delivering financial services through digital channels.
Interestingly, as the group earned more from e-business, its spending on technology and related services moved in the opposite direction.
GTCO reported ₦34.83 billion in technological and service-related expenses during the period, an 8.2% decline from the ₦37.92 billion spent a year earlier.
The development presents a contrast with First HoldCo Plc, the parent company of FirstBank, which reported rising technology maintenance expenses despite recording slower growth in electronic banking revenue.
As earlier reported by TechMedia Africa, First HoldCo spent ₦82.57 billion on IT maintenance in the first nine months of 2026, representing a 21.4% increase, while its electronic banking fee income grew by just 6.3% to ₦73.16 billion.
While the two financial groups are earning more from digital banking services, the figures show that their technology-related operating costs are moving in different directions, although the expense categories are not directly comparable.
However, GTCO’s growing electronic banking earnings did not translate into higher overall profitability.
The group’s profit after tax declined by 12.16% to ₦614.57 billion from ₦699.64 billion in the corresponding period of 2025, while earnings per share fell by 19.94% to ₦16.58 from ₦20.71.