JOHANNESBURG, March 6 (Reuters) – South Africa’s FirstRand Ltd FSRJ.J on Thursday posted a 10% rise in first-half earnings, helped by topline growth and stronger overall credit performance.

Its normalised earnings rose to 20.9 billion rand ($1.14 billion) in the six months ending Dec. 31, from 19.1 billion rand a year earlier, the bank said.

FirstRand, which also operates across certain markets in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK, declared an interim dividend of 219 cents per share, up from 200 cents a year earlier.

The group, whose businesses include FNB, RMB<RMHJ.J> WesBank and Aldermore, said the stronger credit performance was driven by retail credit in South Africa trending ahead of expectations and a much stronger credit outcome in the UK operations.

As a result, the group’s credit loss ratio – a measure of bad loans as a percentage of total loans – at 84 basis points is ahead of FirstRand’s initial through-the-cycle (TTC) expectations, the lender said.

Net income after cost of capital (NIACC) increased 12% to 6.2 billion rand, while overall group net interest income – which represents the difference between earnings from loans and what banks pay on deposits – increased 4%, driven by core lending advances growth of 7% and continued deposit growth of 8%.

($1 = 18.3016 rand)

(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kim Coghill)