June 1 (SeeNews) - Croatian credit institutions booked an overall profit of 1.6 billion kuna ($228 million/212 million euro) in the first quarter of this year, the central bank said.
It did not give comparative figures in a quarterly report on the performance of the banking system issued on Tuesday, but a year ago it said that credit institutions turned a profit of 1.1 billion kuna in the first quarter of 2021, almost equal the profit generated in the same period of 2020.
In the first quarter of 2022, total assets of Croatia's credit institutions reached 506.2 billion kuna, up 1.1% from the end of 2021.
Profitability indicators improved compared to the end of last year, as return on assets (ROA) rose to 1.3% from 1.2% and return on equity (ROE) increased to 9.5% from 8.8% in the first three months of 2022.
An increase in total loans and advances of 1.2% and a decrease in non-performing loans (NPLs) of 2.9% resulted in a further fall in the share of NPLs in total loans to 4.2% at the end of the first quarter of 2022 from 4.3% at the end of 2021.
The share of NPLs fell 8.8% from 9.9% in the portfolio of loans to non-financial corporations and to 6.4% from 6.6% in the portfolio of loans to households at the end of March this year, compared to the end of 2021.
The key indicators of banking system capitalisation remained high in the first quarter of 2022, the central bank said. The total capital ratio of the banking system fell to 25.6% from 25.9% at the end of 2021.
All credit institutions reported total capital ratios in excess of the minimum prescribed level of 8%.
During the first quarter, resolution proceedings were opened against the local unit of Russia's Sberbank, Sberbank d.d., and the bank’s ownership structure was changed from private to state ownership, which increased the number of state-owned credit institutions in Croatia to three.
HPB, Croatia's sixth largest bank by assets, acquired Sberbank d.d., the country's eight largest bank, for a total cash consideration of 71 million kuna in March. The acquisition took place after the European Central Bank warned that Sberbank's subsidiaries in Croatia and Slovenia were failing or likely to fail due to worsened liquidity as a result of Russia's assault on Ukraine.
The name of Sbernank d.d. was changed to Nova Hrvatska Banka and it is expected to merge with HPB next year.
(1 euro=7.534 Croatian kuna)
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