ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - Total lending by monetary institutions to domestic sectors, except the central government, increased by HRK 4 billion in March, with the annual growth rate accelerating from 4% to 5%, the Croatian National Bank (HNB) said on Friday.

This was the result of the increase in loans. Corporate loans increased by HRK 3.7 billion or 6.7% and household loans by HRK 900 million, while loans to other domestic sectors decreased by HRK 400 million.

In the structure of household loans, housing loans and general-purpose cash loans continued to increase, both by HRK 300 million.

The annual growth rates of both housing and general-purpose loans remained at previous month’s level, at 8.0% and 3.4% respectively, so household loans accelerated only slightly, from 4.4% in February to 4.5% in March. On the other hand, corporate loans accelerated considerably, from 2.4% in February to 6.7% in March.

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ZAGREB, 29 April (2022) - Croatian Postal Bank (HPB) generated a net profit of HRK 30 million in the first quarter of 2022, which is about HRK 10.6 million or 25% less than in the corresponding period of 2021, the state-owned bank said in a financial statement on Friday.

The main driver of the net profit achieved was operating profit, which decreased by 59.5%, from HRK 74 million to HRK 30 million.

Operating revenue decreased by about HRK 34 million to HRK 157 million, while operating expenditure jumped by HRK 10 million to HRK 126 million.

Net interest revenue fell by 7.1% from HRK 135 million to HRK 126 million.

Net revenue from commissions was the highest in the past five years, amounting to HRK 43 million, up HRK 1.8 million or 4.2%.

The bank's assets as at 31 March 2022 stood at HRK 28.8 billion, or about HRK 893 million more year-on-year.

The gross credit portfolio increased by HRK 339 million to HRK 16.1 billion, while deposits increased by HRK 1.05 billion to HRK 24.5 billion.

Successful acquisition of Sberbank d.d.

HPB recalled the recent acquisition of Sberbank d.d., and its successful bailout. The bank is now operating within the HPB Group under the name Nova Hrvatska Banka.

At the end of March, Nova Hrvatska Banka had 78,000 clients who are natural persons and 5,000 legal entities, and its assets were valued at HRK 9.6 billion. The bank's capital adequacy ratio is 19.7%, with 5.2% of bad loans. Its net profit in Q1 amounted to HRK 3.2 million. This, however, does not included inherited lawsuits related to loans pegged to the Swiss franc amounting to HRK 9.8 million and possible provisions for court disputes amounting to HRK 20 million.

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