Croatian Postal Bank (HPB) has recorded a continuous increase in operating profit from its operations over the last three months, and this positive trend in business will mitigate the difficulties the bank faces related to losses incurred as a result of increased provisions for credit placements, HPB reported.
The loss could amount to slightly more than 250 million kuna by the end of the year, according to HPB. The growth of household time deposits in 2009 is 14.8 percent, of which as much as 7.8 percent was achieved during November. In the last three months, as much as 60 percent of operating profit was realized. Thus, the operating profit (before provisions for financial assets and liabilities) at the end of November amounted to 99.6 million kuna, of which 21 million kuna was achieved during November. Additionally, with an annual increase in assets of 2.1 percent, interest income compared to the same period last year is higher by 7.1 percent, while net income from fees and commissions increased by 4.5 percent. Despite the expected loss at the end of this year, HPB expects further growth from the beginning of 2010, which will be influenced by the additional strengthening of the capital base planned partly for the end of 2009 and for the first half of 2010. (H)
