Croatian Post Bank Strengthens Market Share to a Record 9.4 Percent

The growth of business in recent years, fueled by the acquisition of the former Sberbank, has further solidified the position of Croatian Post Bank (HPB) among the top five banks in the country. The only major bank in domestic ownership announced on Friday a revised report for the past year, which showed that it ended 2024 with assets of 7.9 billion euros, an increase of 12 percent compared to the previous year. It is worth noting that the bank’s assets have more than doubled in the last five years.

As a result, HPB has increased its market share to a record 9.4 percent. This puts HPB ahead of Raiffeisen Bank Austria (RBA), which, according to data from the Croatian National Bank at the end of last year, held a share of 8.14 percent.

Let us recall that the largest bank in the country is Zagrebačka banka with more than a quarter of the market share, followed by Privredna banka Zagreb with one-fifth of the share, while Erste banka holds 18 percent. HPB is now slowly approaching OTP banka, which has a 10.2 percent share of assets. According to revised annual financial reports, HPB achieved a net profit of 73.6 million euros last year, with a return on equity of 13.5 percent. The entire domestic banking sector recorded a return on equity of 16.4 percent at the end of last year.

HPB also recorded a record operating profit last year, specifically, a result before provisions of 111.8 million euros (22 percent higher) based on growth in all categories of income. The growth in assets was partly supported by the acquisition of Prva hrvatska banka in 2023, or the former Sberbank, which faced problems after a rapid withdrawal of depositors following the outbreak of Russian aggression in Ukraine. Last year, that bank was fully integrated into HPB. The local branch of the largest Russian bank, which was under sanctions from the European Union and the USA, had a market share of 2.2 percent at the end of 2021, while HPB held 5.5 percent.