Banks in Croatia achieved a pre-tax profit of a total of 5.8 billion kuna last year, according to provisional unaudited data for banks as of December 31, 2008, published by the Croatian National Bank (HNB).
This is an increase of 13.8 percent or 705 million kuna higher gross profit than reported in the revised data for 2007. The total assets of 33 banks in Croatia at the end of December last year amounted to 370.6 billion kuna, which is an increase of 7.4 percent or 25.5 billion kuna compared to the end of the previous year. 29 banks reported a profit from operations, while four recorded losses totaling 116.7 million kuna.
In terms of gross profit, Zagrebačka banka (ZABA) leads with 1.74 billion kuna, followed by Privredna banka Zagreb (PBZ) with 1.32 billion kuna in pre-tax profit. ZABA’s share of the total profit of banks was almost 30 percent, while PBZ’s was 22.7 percent, meaning that these two leading banks accounted for more than half of the total gross profit of all banks in Croatia last year. Both achieved profit growth compared to the revised data for 2007 – ZABA by 24.5 percent and PBZ by 15.04 percent.
Following in gross profit size are Erste & Steiermaerkische banka with 984.9 million kuna, Raiffeisenbank Austria with 600.4 million, Societe Generale – Splitska banka with 347.8 million, Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Bank with 185.6 million kuna, and OTP banka Hrvatska with 183.05 million kuna. All these banks are foreign-owned, while the ‘domestic’ Hrvatska poštanska banka, which is majority state-owned, ranks 13th in gross profit with 39.9 million kuna. (H)
