Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and Wema Bank Plc have released their Q1 2026 results, extending the strong momentum recorded in the 2025 financial year.
But while both banks delivered impressive numbers, the story behind their performance is very different.
Before going into the earnings, it is important to look at how the market has priced both stocks.
Stanbic IBTC has recorded the stronger rally so far, with its share price gaining 74.5% to close at N174.50 last week, pushing its market capitalization to about N2.77 trillion.
Wema Bank has also delivered a strong market performance, gaining 63.7% to close at N33.40, with its market capitalization rising to about N1.34 trillion.
The question now is whether these rallies are backed by the numbers, and more importantly, which of the two mid-tier banks delivered the stronger Q1 2026 performance.
Stanbic came into the quarter with a bigger balance sheet, stronger non-interest income, and a more diversified earnings base.
Wema, on the other hand, delivered faster profit growth, stronger loan-led expansion and a cleaner improvement in net interest income.
At the headline level, Stanbic reported higher profit. However, when growth, asset mix, funding cost, impairment, trading income and efficiency are stripped down, the comparison becomes more interesting.
Stanbic’s interest income rose only 3.2% to N186.32 billion, from N180.47 billion in Q1 2025.
Wema Bank’s interest income rose strongly by 63.5% to N179.96 billion in Q1 2026 from N110.08 billion in Q1 2025.
Verdict: Wema wins the interest income round. Stanbic still generated slightly higher interest income, but Wema delivered the stronger growth, better loan-income momentum, and a sharper expansion in its core interest-earning engine.
Stanbic’s balance sheet became more securities-heavy in Q1 2026.
Wema went in the opposite direction. Its customer loans rose 7.2% to N1.86 trillion, while investment securities declined by about 15.1% to N1.13 trillion.
Verdict: Wema wins on traditional loan growth, but Stanbic wins on balance-sheet scale and market positioning.
Funding: Stanbic has cheaper structure, Wema has stronger deposit growth
Stanbic’s customer deposits declined by 6.7% to N4.08 trillion; however, the quality of the deposit base improved.
Wema’s customer deposits rose 3.6% to N3.41 trillion, showing better deposit growth. However, its interest expense on customer deposits more than doubled to N74.64 billion, making customer deposits responsible for 92.7% of its total interest expense.
Verdict: Stanbic wins this round because its funding base appears cheaper and more efficient.
Impairment, which shows how much banks lose, trying to make earnings is one of the most important lines in this comparison.
Stanbic moved from a net impairment write-back of N3.45 billion in Q1 2025 to a net impairment loss of N2.87 billion in Q1 2026.
Wema’s impairment charge moved in the opposite direction. Its total impairment charge fell by 21.0% to N1.44 billion, from N1.82 billion in Q1 2025.
Verdict: Wema wins this round.
Stanbic’s non-interest revenue rose to N130.31 billion from N53.12 billion, supported by strong net fee and commission income, especially asset management fees of N38.61 billion, and trading revenue.
The key difference is that Stanbic has a deeper non-interest income engine. Its asset management, advisory, custody, and trading operations provide a stronger earnings base outside traditional lending.
Wema’s trading income improved, but it was not enough to offset the weakness in fee and commission income.
Verdict: Stanbic wins this round.
Stanbic’s total operating expenses rose by 8.7% to N97.91 billion, while total income rose by 31.1%. That gave it a cost-to-income ratio of about 36.8%, compared with 44.4% in Q1 2025.
Wema also improved efficiency. Its total operating expenses rose 17.2% to N50.29 billion, while operating income rose 46.0% to N122.85 billion. This reduced its cost-to-income ratio to 40.9%, from 51.0% in Q1 2025.
Verdict: Stanbic wins on current efficiency; Wema wins on improvement.
