In the fourth quarter alone, the bank achieved a profit of 164 million euros and earnings per share of 1.84 euros. This was announced by BAWAG on Tuesday.
The operational business was strong in the previous year. Earnings before risk costs increased by 14 percent to 743 million euros. The bank halved the risk costs themselves compared to 2020 (minus 58 percent or 130 million euros), at the end of the year they were 95 million euros. The precautions had “returned to a normal level”. In view of the economic uncertainty, however, they want to continue to “guarantee appropriate risk provisions,” writes the bank.
However, the development among customers was positive, deferrals are steadily declining and are currently 0.1 percent of customer loans. The ratio of non-performing loans (NPL) was 1.4 percent.
The bank has no direct exposure (open risk positions, editor’s note) to Russia or Ukraine. The focus continues to be on the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), around three quarters of the customer loan volume (73 percent) comes from the region. The remaining 27 percent come from the rest of Western Europe and the USA.
For the current year 2022, the bank expects increased volatility – on the one hand because central banks are beginning to raise interest rates and reduce balance sheets, on the other hand because of “geopolitical, climatic and health risks”, according to the outlook. However, the bank’s business model is resilient, so the institute expects earnings to increase accordingly. “Our outlook for 2022 is based on core revenues growing by more than 4 percent and operating expenses falling by around 2 percent.” The bank is also aiming for earnings before taxes (EBT) of EUR 675 million (EBT 2021: EUR 600 million).
Source: Nachrichten
