Bulgarian banks' net profit up 50% y/y at end-July, assets rise 2.1%

The banking sector's total net operating income amounted to 2.98 billion levs as at end-July, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in a monthly report on the performance of local banks on Wednesday. This compares to a total net operating income of some 2.6 billion levs in the first seven months of last year.

Gross interest income of banks in Bulgaria went up to 1.92 billion levs in the January-July period from 1.74 billion levs in the like period of 2021, while gross fee and commission income increased to 996.4 million levs from 815.6 million levs.

The banks' total assets amounted to 145.1 billion levs at the end of July, which represented an annual increase of 3 billion levs, after growing 10.7% year-on-year to 142.1 billion levs at the end of June.

The gross loan portfolio of the Bulgarian banking system stood at 82.3 billion levs at the end of the first seven months of the current year, after a 1.6% monthly increase.

As of end-July, deposits in the banking system totalled 124.7 billion, or 2.4% more than ia month earlier. Increases in deposits were registered by non-financial corporations - by 3.4%, households - by 1.2%, other financial corporations - by 5.4%,credit institutions - by 6.2%, and the general government sector - by 5.0%.

UniCredit Bulbank was Bulgaria's largest lender by assets at the end of July, followed by DSK Bank and United Bulgarian Bank (UBB).

KBC Bank Bulgaria, which was formed after KBC completed the merger of Austria's Raiffeisenbank International's Bulgarian unit in July, is Bulgaria's sixth largest lender, BNB data showed.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)