Banks in Croatia reported a gross operating profit of 4.15 billion kuna in 2017, which is about one-third less than the previous year, according to the latest data published by the Croatian National Bank (HNB).
The decline in bank profitability last year was primarily influenced by risks associated with Agrokor and related companies, which led banks to increase provisions, thereby raising their costs for value adjustments of placements to commercial companies.
Compared to the provisional unaudited data on the operations of credit institutions for 2016, the banks’ profit before tax last year decreased by 33.25 percent, or fell by about 2.1 billion kuna, from 6.22 billion kuna in 2016 to 4.15 billion kuna at the end of last year.
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The central bank’s data refers to a total of 25 banks operating in the Croatian market, which is one bank less than at the end of 2016. Namely, at the end of last year, Štedbanka made the decision to cease operations and initiate regular liquidation proceedings.
PBZ achieved the highest profit
According to provisional unaudited data as of December 31 of last year, a total of 16 banks operated with gross profits, while nine reported losses.
Data for last year shows that the largest gross profit, around 1.7 billion kuna, was reported by Privredna banka Zagreb, while the usually highest profit – Zagrebačka banka, ranked second with just over one billion kuna in profit before tax.
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The third highest gross profit was recorded by Erste&Steiermaerkische bank with 811.7 million kuna, and the fourth was Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) with a profit before tax of 475.1 million kuna. More than one hundred million kuna in gross profit was achieved by two other banks last year – OTP banka Hrvatska, 164.7 million kuna, and Addiko bank, 153.2 million kuna.
