Banking crisis in Croatia? Not at HPB.
In the first nine months of the year, Croatian Postal Bank (HPB) has achieved operating profit of 258 million kuna, with the net profit of 106.8 million kuna, which are the highest profits in the history of the bank, HPB announced at a news conference on Friday, reports Poslovni.hr on October 31, 2015.
The operating profit of the bank in the first nine months of this year is higher by 9.5 percent compared to last year. In the same period last year, the bank reported a net loss of more than 400 million kuna. Member of the Board of HPB Domagoj Karađole pointed out that these results had been achieved despite the bank going through a reorganization, recapitalization and risk exposure optimization process during the period.
After the capital increase in June in the amount of 252 million kuna, HPB issued a new series of shares and increased its capital by additional 550 million kuna. The total capital now stands at 1.7 billion kuna. With the increase in capital, as well as with the optimization of risk exposure, HPB has achieved a capital adequacy ratio of 16.5 percent, which is 2.5 percentage points higher than the regulatory prescribed rate.
Although the business plan for 2016 is still being prepared, HPB expects that a joint project with the Croatian Post (HP) will have a significant positive effect on business results. HPB and HP have launched this year a pilot project aimed at the development of the largest sales channel for banking products in Croatia, through an increased product offering of HPB services in the network of Croatian Post offices, which is with its about a thousand branches twice as extensive as HPB’s network.
Marijana Špalj from Department of Retail Banking is the project manager and she explained that the Croatian Post already offers some basic banking products, such as the possibility of opening a checking account, but it will now expand this service, for example, with the possibility of applying for loans or banking cards. There are also plans for issuing a joint credit card. With that goal in mind, dedicated Financial Corners have been established at post office branches, and during the six months of the pilot project the number of banking services sold has been increased by two and a half times, said Špalj. She also added that the offices of the Croatian Post are daily visited by an average of 150,000 customers and the objective is to attract as many of those who are not yet customers of the bank.
