August 2 (SeeNews) - The banks operating in Bulgaria booked a net profit of 1.0 billion levs ($522.7 million/511.3 million euro) in the first half of 2022, which was 359 million levs more than in the same period of last year, the central bank said.
The banking sector's total net operating income amounted to 2.56 billion levs at end-June, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in a monthly report on the performance of local banks on Friday. This compares to a total net operating income of 2.18 billion levs in the first half of 2021.
Gross interest income of banks in Bulgaria went up to 1.64 billion levs in the review period from 1.49 billion levs in the first six months of 2021, while gross fee and commission income increased to just under 841 million levs from 684.5 million levs.
The banks' total assets amounted to 142.1 billion levs at the end of June, up from 128.4 billion levs a year earlier, after a second-quarter increase of 1.6 billion levs.
The gross loan portfolio of the Bulgarian banking system stood at 81 billion levs at the end of the first half of the current year.
As of end-June, deposits in the banking system totalled 121.8 billion, or 1.7% more than in the first quarter of 2022. Increases in deposits were registered by non-financial corporations - by 3.3%, households - by 1.2%, credit institutions - by 7.7%, and the general governments sector - by 6.5%. At the same time, the deposits of other financial corporations decreased by 14.3% on the quarter.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)