January 9 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's Hipotekarna banka expects to announce a 15% rise in profit for 2016, the bank's managing director Esad Zaimovic has said, according to local media reports.
Hipotekarna expanded its portfolio of loans to households by 20% year-on-year to 63 million euro ($66.4 million) in 2016, news agency Mina-business quoted Zaimovic as saying on Saturday.
The average interest rate on loans extended by the bank last year decreased by about 10%, or almost one percentage point, Zaimovic pointed out.
The net profit of Hipotekarna banka grew by 11.2% on the year to 2.73 million euro in 2015. Net interest income rose by 29% to 11.69 million euro.
Hipotekarna banka booked a net profit of 3.39 million euro in the first nine months of 2016, up 42.4% on the year. Net interest income rose by 11% to 9.4 million euro.
($ = 0.948924 euro)