Consolidated unaudited business results of Slovenská sporiteľňa as of 31 March 2023 according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

“The good news is that the results for the first quarter are in line with our plan. The loans are mainly driven by corporate clients – the volume of loans in this segment grew by almost one third which is a great result, and it proves that my colleagues are doing an excellent job. The retail loans cooled down in 4Q2022, but we still saw a y/y growth in this segment. Slovak companies and the whole economy are doing quite ok. Layoffs are not necessary; the share of defaulted loans is also going down steadily which helps us keep our risk costs really low. And since we manage to keep our operating expenses under control, we achieved a good result,” says Pavel Cetkovský, CFO and Member of the Board of Directors of Slovenská sporiteľňa. 

Business performance overview of Slovenská sporiteľňa as of 31 March 2023
 

Net interest income went up by 20.3% y/y from EUR 103.9 million to EUR 125.1 million. The increase of net interest income is the result of 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 liabilities.   

Net fee and commission income increased by 13.6% y/y from EUR 44.1 million to EUR 50.1 million. Fees for payment services including the extraordinary income from the company Visa and the higher volume of transactions and fees for loan products were the main positive factors behind this increase

The bank recorded a net profit of EUR 4.2 million in net trading and fair value result (it was EUR 4.7 million in 2022) which is mainly attributable to derivative transactions.

General administrative expenses went up by 1.3% y/y to EUR 81.9 million (in 2022 it was EUR 80.8 million). Personal expenses increased by 16.2% y/y mainly because of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, while other administrative expenses dropped by 14.9% mainly because of lower contribution to the Deposit Protection Fund. Write-offs went down slightly by 1.4%.

Operating profit went up by EUR 25.3 million, accounting for an increase of 34.7%. Cost income ratio decreased to 45.5% compared with last year.

The bank recorded a net impairment loss on financial assets in the amount of EUR 2.2 million in 2023; it was EUR 20.0 million in the previous period.

The share of defaulted loans on total loan volume decreased from 1.8% to 1.6% while the coverage with provisions improved from 116.9% to 122.0%.  

The volume of loans products to customers (including loans, leasing and factoring) increased by 10.6% y/y and achieved EUR 18.1 billion. Retail loans were the major driving force; they increased by 1.6% y/y (by EUR 0.2 billion) compared with 2022. Slovenská sporiteľňa again confirmed its position as market leader in retail loans; its market share in retail loans reached 24.7% in 2023. The main growth driver were housing loans which grew by 8.8% (EUR 0.8 billion in absolute terms), while consumer loans went up by 5.0% (EUR 0.1 billion in absolute terms).

Loans to corporate clients (including factoring and leasing products) increased by 32.4% y/y (by EUR 1.5 billion) and reached EUR 6.3 billion.

Retail deposits decreased from EUR 13.9 billion to EUR 13.1 billion. Deposits from customers rose from EUR 15.9 billion to EUR 17.2 billion compared with the year 2021.