Slovenská sporiteľňa achieved profit after tax in the amount of EUR 219.1 million after the third quarter of 2023

“The tightening of the monetary policy by ECB has had positive impact on our business results. But at the same time, we were also able to grow our business; mainly in the corporate area which improved by more than one fifth. As a result, interest income is growing due to corporate funding in particular. Lower risk costs point out to the fact that the economy and financial situation of households is improving. Quarter´s good news also included two investments of Seed Starter, our venture capital fund. SmartHead provides complex solutions focused on sustainability and ESG reporting and Blockmate combines the world of cryptocurrencies with the traditional ecosystem. We hope that both will not only improve the quality of our services, but also our business results,” says Pavel Cetkovský, CFO and Member of the Board of Directors of Slovenská sporiteľňa.

Business performance overview of Slovenská sporiteľňa as of 30 September 2023  

Net interest income went up by 18.9% y/y from EUR 326.8 million to EUR 386.6 million. The increase of net interest income is the result of growing loan portfolio and growing interest rates following the tightening of monetary policy by ECB. The bank managed to translate this increase of interest rates into an increase of interest income from loans which was partially offset by higher interest costs for deposits and other financial liabilities.

Net fee and commission income increased by 7.9% y/y from EUR 142.7 million to EUR 153.9 million. Fee and commission income from payments services, brokerage of insurance and investments into mutual funds had a strong positive effect.

The bank recorded a net profit of EUR 15.9 million in net trading and fair value result (it was EUR 18.8 million in 2022) which is mainly attributable to derivative transactions.

General administrative expenses went up by 7.5% y/y to EUR 243.5 million (in 2022 it was EUR 226.5 million). Personal expenses increased by 8.76% y/y mainly because of wage growth caused by inflation, while other administrative expenses grew by 8.07% mainly because of increased IT costs, inflation and energy prices.

Operating profit went up by EUR 53.4 million, accounting for an increase of 20.2%. Cost income ratio decreased to 43.4% compared with last year.

The bank recorded a net impairment loss on financial assets in the amount of EUR 28.4 million in 2023; it was EUR 45.5 million in 2022.

The share of defaulted loans on total loan volume decreased from 1.6% to 1.7% while the coverage with provisions decreased from 124.1% to 115.9%.  

The volume of loans products to customers (including loans, leasing and factoring) increased by 5.9% y/y and achieved EUR 18.7 billion. Housing loans grew by 5.3% (EUR 0.5 billion in absolute terms) and consumer loans went up by 8.0% (EUR  0.12 billion in absolute terms). Slovenská sporiteľňa again confirmed its position as market leader in retail loans; its market share in retail loans reached 24.7% after three quarter of 2023.

Loans to corporate clients (including factoring and leasing products) increased by 21.1% y/y (by EUR 1.2 billion) and reached EUR 6.6 billion. We recorded growth in all segments.

Deposits from customers rose from EUR 17.0 billion to EUR 17.3 billion compared with the year 2022.