Hellenic Bank posted a net profit of €40 mln in the first nine months marking a 55% dip in profits from last year, due to increased provisions to cover credit loss during the pandemic.
In the third quarter of 2020, Cyprus’ largest retail bank posted a net profit of €22.3 mln following a profit of €19.9 mln in Q2.
The bank’s capital ratio remained relatively unchanged for the first nine months with the CET1 ratio amounting to 20.6% and Total Capital Adequacy ratio at 22.51%.
Total non-performing exposures recorded a 27% drop year on year amounting to €2.27 bln while excluding loans covered by the asset protection scheme NPEs dropped to €1.8 bln.
This accounted for 24.5% of total loans while excluding the APS it accounted for 17.6%.
According to the financial results, the drop in NPEs attributed to non-contractual write-downs amounting to €0.6 bln, of which €0.5 bln was in Q2.
Phivos Stasopoulos, the banks Interim Chief Executive Officer said the results “demonstrate the resilience of our business model and the strength of our statement of financial position in the face of significant continued uncertainty.”
“With a robust capital adequacy ratio of 22.5% and excess liquidity, we are extremely well-positioned to support our viable clients and finance the recovery of the country’s economy.”
Impairment losses spiked to €49.7 mln from January through September, compared with €11.9 mln in the same period of 2019 with loan impairments due to coronavirus at €47 mln.
The NPEs provision coverage ratio amounted to 45.9%.
Hellenic customer deposits amounted to €14.1 bln as at 30 September, compared to €14.6 bln at the end of 2019.
In the first nine months of 2020, the bank’s total new lending reached €712.3 mln with gross loans amounting to €6.74 bln.
The bank said that a total of €2.8 bln of gross loans are subject to a government-induced payment holiday as part of the economic rescue package to tackle the impact of Covid-19. The payment moratorium ends in December.
Hellenic Bank’s net interest income for the nine months was €212.2mln, down by 7% compared to €227 mln for the same period last year reflecting lower income from performing loans due to lending base rate reduction and less income from debt securities.
Net interest income for Q3 reached €71.7 mln remaining relatively unchanged compared with the previous quarter.
The bank’s total expenses for the nine months was €189.6 mln marking a 5% reduction on last year.
Staff costs reached €93 mln, accounting for 49% of the Group’s total expenses
The cost to income ratio for January to September accounted for 66.7%
